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I 



A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY 


OR 

THE MAN WHO WOULD NOT BE 

A PATRIOT 



PX WILLIAMS 

\\ 


“o liberty! liberty! how many crimes are committed 

IN THY name!” 





NEW YORK 




HE 


^ <> 






« 


SAAl. FIELD & FITCH 


2 BIBLE HOUSE 



Copyright, 1893, 

BY I 



I 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER. PAGE. 

I. A Talk about Liberty - - 9 

II. The Pastor utters more Heresy 20 

III. The Story of the Outcast - 44 

IV. The Hidden Impulse - - - 63 

V. Cast out of Fellowship - - 85 

VI. The Last Appeal - - - . 106 

VII. One More Day’s Work for Jesus 125 
VIII. A Strange sort of Martyrdom 142 
IX. The Wanderer’s Welcome - 164 

X. The Pastor’s Mistake - - 178 








SAW a mansion rising in vast and stately pro* 



portions under the hands of many builders. 
Wherein, dwellers occupying unfinished apartments 
were saying to each other : ** What house is like this 
house in grandeur or in strength ? Its walls shall 
rise to heaven and shall last forever." And the 
dwellers stood at the windows sending their voices 
abroad, saying : ** Come ! Take an abode in this 

mansion ; for its many apartments are spacious and 
beautiful ; and its walls are laid upon a foundation 
chosen by learned counsellors — a foundation that is 
enduring and strong." 

I also believed these things; for I saw that the 
walls were imbedded in a mighty rock that seemed to 
be eternal adamant. Upon its surface, searching 
with care to see if it contained aught of fiaw or 
fissure, I discovered this inscription : Self protection: 
the first law of nature. ^^Here," thought I, is full 
assurance of survival. What can ruin undertakings 
which rely upon the unfailing laws of nature for 
success ! " Filled with admiration ; and continuing 


6 


to study the staunch, symmetrical and mighty foun- 
dation, I presently found these words also thereon : 
Violence^ Warfare. And upon another part of the 
rock I found this sentence written : Knowledge 
without Wisdom. And also : Ever learning, and 
never alle to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

While I pondered, desiring to learn the significance 
of the writing, I saw a great stone having neither 
form nor comeliness lying near the walls of the man- 
sion, and being passed and repassed by the builders ; 
but yet unnoticed by them. Approaching, I saw 
that it too bore a writing on its surface. Going closer 
I read : The stone which the builders rejected ; but 
chosen of God and precious. And in another place 
on the rough rock these words were written : Love 
your enemies. And also these : Except the Lord 
build the house, they labor in vain that build it. 

Marveling greatly, I turned again toward the man- 
sion to say to the builders : ‘^Sirs, what means it that 
a stone seeming so unfit for foundation bears such 
mighty declarations but paused, to look at the 
living stream which from all abroad was pouring in 
through the many doors of the mansion, rising to 
every level, and flowing into all apartments. And 
still the dwellers, standing at the windows, cried 
aloud : Come ! Take an abode in this mansion ; 


7 


for it shall stand forever. See ! We have set upon 
our banners the everlasting stars for an emblem.^' 
And looking upward, I saw on towering and un- 
finished pinnacles the everlasting stars fixed upon 
many proudly floating banners. 

But suddenly, while I gazed, all upbuilding ceased ; 
and the inflowing stream of life stopped, turned 
backward, and came pouring out through the many 
doors and away from the mansion. And there was 
a great sound, as of a terrible earthquake. And the 
mighty foundation yawned asunder ; and the walls of 
the mansion with their towering pinnacles, and proud 
banners bearing the eternal stars for an emblem of 
duration, fell down into the dust. 

But above the thunder of the falling walls ; above 
the cries of warning and despair — a voice sounded, 
saying: Direct us 0 Lord in all our doings with 

Thy most gracious favor, and further us with Thy 
continual help ; that in all our works begun, con- 
tinued and ended in Thee, we may glorify Thy holy 
NameJ"* 


^ jt f 



A TEUE SON OF LIBEETT. 


CHAPTER L 

A TALK ABOUT LIBEETT. 

Bellicose was in a state of excitement on a 
certain morning, a generation ago. The strange 
declarations made at the last night^s meeting of the 
debating club, by the talented pastor of Union 
Tabernacle, had not indeed been totally unheralded ; 
previous utterances of the gentleman having apprised 
his neighbors that he could not be counted as one 
wholly in sympathy with that spirit of ardent patriot- 
ism for which the place was renowned. But last 
night, in the heat of argument, he had gone to such 
remarkable lengths in his attacks upon ideas which 
Bellicose held sacred, that his hearers had been 
thrown into an agitation which could not have been 
greater had the shock been given without any warn- 
ing. 

And echoes of the speech were not slow in spread- 
ing outward in widening circles; for the atmosphere of 
Bellicose was as celebrated for its transmitting quali- 
ties as it was for the stimulus which it contained 


10 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


for the nourishment of patriotism. Tongues were in 
rapid motion this morning, and reports of the strange 
sayings were being given with ready unction or with 
reluctant consent; as love of country or love for the 
erring pastor predominated in the hearts of the 
narrators. 

The attendance at the debate, although quite as 
full as audiences usually were when a speech from 
the lips of the gifted pastor was expected, would 
have assumed the proportions of a mass meeting had 
Bellicose been given beforehand a programme of 
what was coming. This was the opinion of Mr. 
Kitto, who served as trustee of Union Tabernacle; 
and who also served to townspeople their burning 
fluid with such unfailing punctuality that it had 
been said of him by certain witty persons, that he 
was trusty in more senses than one. 

At this moment, however, Mr. Kitto was in danger 
of losing his hard-earned reputation for regularity of 
conduct. Unmindful of the fact that a can which 
had been placed under the faucet of a certain tank 
or reservoir in his delivery wagon needed replenish- 
ing; and indeed to all appearances unconscious of 
the presence of the wagon itself, behind which he 
was standing; Mr. Kitto was describing to an atten- 
tive listener the effect of last night’s speech upon the 


A TALK ABOUT LIBERTY. 


11 


opinion which he had previously formed regarding 
the character of his pastor. 

I stand,” said he in conclusion, just here. 
I believe that religion and patriotism go hand in 
hand. I believe that as a man grows in grace he 
becomes strengthened in love of country. I believe 
that the more earnest a Christian is, the more ready 
he is to leap to his country's succor when her liberties 
are attacked. I have always had doubts of our pas- 
tor’s Christianity as regards patriotism ; and at times 
I have felt almost called upon to expostulate with 
him. I wish now that I had done so. What do you 
think. Spinner, of a man occupying a position as 
teacher of religion in a country so evidently estab- 
lished and protected by Divine Providence as is the 
land that we live in — what do you think of such a man, 
I ask — standing up and declaring that resistance to 
tyrants is disobedience to God ? — saying that our in- 
stitutions were set up in rebellion ; and that there- 
fore their foundations are in hell ! What do you 
think of such a man ? For my part, I admit that 
our pastor has many lovable qualities; but for all 
that, he will be the cause of dissension in the Church 
of Christ if he follows his bent any longer. But 
what do you think of such assertions coming from 
the lips of a Christian minister. Spinner ; and what 


12 


A TRUE sols' OF LIBERTY. 


ought I to do in the matter, trustee as I am of 
Union Tabernacle ?” 

Mr. Spinner, postmaster of the town of Bellicose, 
loved to express his sentiments in a dual capacity. 
As an appointee of the government of his native 
land ; equivalent in his mind to being his coun- 
try’s delegate to a perpetual convention — voicing, 
in a sense” — a favorite phrase of his, the senti- 
ments of the people of these United States.” And, 
also, ^^as a simple and unpretending citizen.” 

^'Well, friend Kitto,” he replied, ‘^not being a 
member of Union Tabernacle, I prefer not to give 
advice in the matter. As an outsider and a simple 
and unpretending citizen, I can only deplore the fact 
that such words have been spoken in our liberty- 
loving community. But representing as I do, the 
people of these United States in their official cap- 
acity, my sympathies naturally reach out from the 
department which is my station, and attach them- 
selves to all public affairs. I feel that loyal America 
coincides with me sir when I say as I do now, that 
the author of utterances such as those you have just 

quoted should be severely censured. Liberty ” 

Good morning, Mr. Postmaster ! ” chimed in a 
third voice. What meaning do you attach to that 
word — ^liberty ?” 


A TALK ABOUT LIBERTY. 


13 


The speaker, whose approach had been hidden by 
the wagon, was the man who had just been accounted 
deserving of reprimand. But by his bearing he 
disclosed no consciousness of being worthy of con- 
demnation. Erect in stature, courteous and straight- 
forward in demeanor — he would have been the last 
man singled out by a stranger in Bellicose, as one 
against whom arrows of scorn were about to be 
darted ; as one upon whom a mantle of reproach was 
about to fall. 

Liberty,’^ said the postmaster, answering the 
pastor^s question, liberty — well pastor to be frank 
with you, I say that liberty is something very differ- 
ent from what you are trying to persuade people it 
is. Liberty, sir, is what our fathers achieved through 
the repression of tyranny, and what, sir, their sons 
will preserve by the repression of treason, if occasion 
arises ! In a certain sense, sir, I voice the sentiments 

of the American people in declaring it ” 

^^Can liberty be attained or maintained, inter- 
posed the pastor, by repressing the acts of tyrants 
or traitors ? I do not believe it. The rebellion of 
your forefathers did not establish liberty. What it 
did establish was dominion of certain ideas which the 
rebels declared to be self-evident truths. This is far 
from being an establishment of liberty. Let the 


14 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


people of any part of the land over which the 
American union claims right of sovereignty, try to 
establish a dominion of ideas which they declare to 
be self-evident truths, but which ideas are distasteful 
to people of the other parts of the land ; and think 
you that the malcontents will be accorded permission 
to set up a dominion of their own ideas ?” 

‘^Pastor,” said the postmaster, in grave tones, 
feel that I am, in a sense, voicing the loyalty of my 
fellow-countrymen, when I say that the epithet which 
you have just applied to our noble sires of the Revo- 
lution is well-nigh treasonable. And when I adjure 
you solemnly, as I do now, to beware of the heresies 
of John 0. Calhoun." 

Do not misunderstand me," replied the pastor. 

do not use words or arguments as a partisan. 
The rebellion in which the formation of the American 
union was begun, was rebellion against God ; that 
thought concerns me chiefly. When your forefathers 
threw off the yoke of their oppressor, they threw off 
also that yoke which Jesus spoke of when He said : 
^Take my yoke upon you and learn of me.^ The 
yoke of obedience to the will of God, which Jesus 
bore without murmur, necessitates submission to in- 
justice. He told His disciples to pay a tax far more 
oppressive and galling than that tax which was 


,A TALK ABOUT LIBERTY. 


15 


imposed upon your rebellious forefathers by their 
earthly sovereign.^' 

At the time these words were spoken, that intellect- 
ual awakening which the poet Lowell speaks of as a 
discovery that ^^they didn^t know everythin^ down 
in Judee,^^ had not touched Bellicose. Testimony 
drawn from the Bible was unanswerable if it could 
not be met by other testimony from the same source. 
Such an answer neither of the pastor^s critics was 
prepared to furnish at the moment. They were per- 
plexed by his manner of using Scripture, and their 
minds were restive because of their inability to dissi- 
pate the cloud which had encroached upon the glory 
of their forefathers. 

Liberty I” continued the non-partisan; ^^it can 
never be attained or maintained by acts of coercion 
and violence. Evil-doers may by violence establish 
conditions which seem to them to be conditions of 
liberty; but they are deceived. The blessings of 
liberty are God^s gifts to those only who are im- 
plicitly obedient to His laws. Group together the 
most beneficent of those so-called blessings of liberty 
which popular historians say that your forefathers 
secured to themselves and to their posterity ; and 
what are they when compared with the accompani- 
ments of true liberty ? Liberty, to be liberty, must 


16 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


be full liberty ; and to true liberty is attached all 
privileges, even creative power and deathlessness. 
See this exemplified in the life, miracles and resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ, the first Son of liberty 
manifested to an unbelieving world.” 

Have a care, pastor ! Have a care I ” said the 
warning voice of the trustee. Jesus Christ was 
the Son of God.” 

'^Have not I just said the same thing in other 
words?” rejoined the pastor. Is it not written: 
* As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
the sons of God ’ ? To be a son of liberty, I must 
become a son of God. The way to become a son of 
God does not lie through disobedience to the laws of 
God.” 

The auditors were silenced for a moment ; but foi 
a moment only. That intense desire to separate men 
from Christ which possesses the soul of every theolo- 
gian, quickly prompted the trustee to say : 

‘^You must not, pastor — you must not couple 
humaii beings with the Saviour in that irreverent 
manner. He is God, and men can never do what He 
has done.” 

'^It is written,” answered the pastor, '^that a 
hundred and forty and four thousand follow the 
Lamb whithersoever He goeth.” 


A TALK ABOUT LIBERTY. 


17 


That man's mind is in a queer jumble," said the 
postmaster, as the pastor walked away. What does 
he mean by mixing up liberty with religion in the 
way he does ? Seems as though I should never be 
able to straighten out my ideas again. He'd better 
make out some sort of new-fangled political Bible, 
and preach from that. Ours does not appear to suit 
his mind." 

^^Oh, no," responded the trustee; '^his call is to 
revise all history. I've heard him say that history 
will never be properly written until it contrasts the 
lives of conquerors and rulers with the life of Christ. 
But," — after a pause — ^^we ought to be more sorry 
for him in his discontent, than angry with him. He 
seems to have made up his mind that the world is 
against him, and so goes through life opposing him- 
self to everybody. He cannot see that he makes 
antagonists out of friends, and that he is his own worst 
enemy." 

With the culpability of the man who, while pro- 
fessing to be taught of Jesus, speaks of the world as 
though its friendliness should be sought after, these 
chronicles have nothing to do. They are written to 
record the things which the blindness of heart out of 
whose abundance such thoughts flow, prompted men 
to do to one who believed that the words : I have 


18 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


chosen you out of the world, therefore the world 
hateth you were spoken to him. They are written 
to show the career of a man who, fully believing that 
he had been chosen out of the world to follow Christ, 
was diligently searching to find His footsteps, which 
had been almost wholly covered over by haters of the 
narrow way of peace. They are written to show 
the fate of a man who desired above all things to 
walk in the footsteps of Christ ; to know sorrows, to 
become acquainted with grief, and to be despised and 
rejected of men. To show the fate of a man who 
believed that the servant ought not to be above his 
master ; and who realized also — none more fully than 
he — that the same Jesus Christ who had been to the 
Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolish- 
ness ; was to the upholders of the American union, 
meaningless. 

^^Kitto,” said the postmaster, ^*1 will acknowledge 
to you confidentially what I would not admit to your 
pastor, for I think he ought to be reprimanded and 
warned. I believe he is a good man. I do indeed. 
I believe that he means well. But I tell you his 
ideas are confused. He mixes everything together 
in his head. Now I say, let every tub stand on its 
own bottom. I keep my patriotism, and my religion, 
and my business, all separate and apart from each 


A TALK ABOUT LIBERTY. 


19 


other. When I want to use one or the other, I take it 
up and use it, and then put it away again where it 
belongs. I never think of using one for the purpose 
to which the other is adapted. I would not think of 
running my business on patriotic principles ; nor my 
patriotism on religious principles. It would be like 
trying to . build a house on a foundation of sand. It 
could not stand, sir. It would be a foolish under- 
taking.^^ 

^‘Well, brother,” rejoined the trustee, “that sort 
of feeling may do for the unregenerate ; but I cannot 
say that it answers for me. I try to do everything in 
the Lord, my brother — everything in the Lord.” 


20 


A TRUE SOJS- OF LIBERTY. 


CHAPTEE 11. 

THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY, 

The pastor had been reading about the persecution 
of the primitive Christians, and was musing in his 
chair with his book lying open before him. The 
thoughts that he had admitted to his mind were not 
strangers. Their visits had become more and more 
frequent as he had progressed in that knowledge whose 
threshold he passed when he learned to contemplate 
human events from a spiritual plane of observation. 
With the boldness of privileged friends they had now 
summoned him to withdraw his attention from the 
recorded annals before him, and to consider his own 
prospects. To remember that the noble army of 
martyrs had not yet been made full. To remember 
that persecution of believers in Jesus had not ceased 
because hatred of Christ had departed from the world, 
but because love of Christ had grown cold in the hearts 
of His disciples. To remember that the world, which 
had killed his Master, had continued, through long 
ages down to the present time, the same wicked world; 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


21 


without variableness or shadow of turning in its great 
desire to hunt down and kill every lover of Truth who 
follows Christ openly and fearlessly. To remember 
that now — in the place where he is dwelling — a land 
whose citizens boast that they guarantee to men 
the right to worship God according to the dictates of 
their own consciences — he who believes in Jesus with 
his whole heart must be prepared to lose fortune 
friends and life. 

Sweet counsellors these to the man who has taken 
up the cross of Christ with glad willingness of spirit. 
But, oh, how he yearns to hear the whisper of mes- 
sengers sent to give strength to weak flesh ! Will he 
hear their voices when the burden of his life has grown 
hard to be borne? When his time has come to endure 
the sneers, the scoffs, the contumely of men; the de- 
nunciations of their teachers; the sentence of unrelent- 
ing judges learned in human law — will angels strength- 
en him then? When on all sides earthly voices cry 
out: ‘‘False! false! traitorously and blasphemously 
false ! he shall die ! " — Then, in that extremity will 
voices from on high speak to him in tones of strong 
assurance, saying : “Thou art of the Truth ! Thou 
canst not die ! ” Or, is it a part of some unalterable 
plan that God^s beloved sons must endure even their 
bitterest agony in a loneliness like that which once 


22 


A TRUE SON" OF LIBERTY. 


wrung from stiffening lips the cry: ^'My God! My 
God ! Why hast Thou forsaken me ?” 

In some lower room of the house a sweet womanly 
voice was singing. There seeihed to be at times an 
almost mysterious interaction of the minds of the 
pastor and his daughter. Frequently, when he was 
occupied with thoughts that separated him so wholly 
from his surroundings that he was unconscious of 
even a desire to speak, she suddenly surprised him 
with a remark or question strangely touching on the 
matter of his own thoughts; and at times so oppor- 
tune as to point to a way out of some difficulty into 
which he had wandered. It was as though some un- 
named and unknown medium of thought transmission 
lay between father and daughter which they at times 
unconsciously opened and made use of. 

The marvel was occurring again, now. The pastor 
going down into gloomy depths had unknowingly 
sent out an appeal for help, which had awakened 
utterance in his daughter. Back from her, straightway, 
borne on wings of melody, was coming a response : 

‘ ‘ God shall charge His angel legions 
Watch and ward o’er thee to keep.” 

It pierced through the shadows that surrounded 
him; and took possession of his heart. Oh, thou 
of little faith,” it whispered, ^'wherefore dost thou 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 2S 

doubt ? as thy day is so shall thy strength be. Hast 
thou forgotten the sure word of hope ? He is faithful 
that promised. Count well the cost, oh, man of God, 
but fear not. It is enough for thee to know that thou 
shalt be led through no darker rooms than Christ 
passed through before. Enough for thee to know 
that thou shalt endure unto the end. Enough for 
thee to know that thou, oh, upholder of Truth, shalt 
not quail before Pilate. Then, cease not to warn 
men that those things which they believe are realities, 
and which they set their hearts upon; are but the 
shadows of death disguised for their delusion. And 
build thou on Christ ; on Him alone. 

As the music of the singer’s voice died away, the 
sound of other voices was heard and the door of the 
study was opened from the outside. Kising from his 
chair with a ^‘good evening, brethren,” the pastor wel- 
comed the incomers, ten or twelve in number, follow- 
ing the lead of Mr. Kitto, Under the pastor’s smile 
of greeting, there was evidence of surprise ; an ex- 
pression of countenance which doubtless was consid- 
ered suitable for the occasion by the trustee; who, 
while hands were being shaken, opened the interview 
in this manner : 

“I foretold that you would be astonished, pastor, at 
our calling on you in this fashion; but brother Wilbur’s 


34 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


opinion was that the matter is of such importance 
that it ought not to be postponed until next business 
meeting. So all of us deacons and trustees deter- 
mined to call on you in a body.^' 

Brother Wilbur said nothing at this juncture either 
by way of corroboration or approval; thinking perhaps, 
that the powers of his associate were competent to set 
forth the views of two trustees of Union Tabernacle. 

coincide with Wilbur in his belief, pastor,” — con- 
tinued the spokesman. ^Tt is of the greatest import- 
ance — Deacon Tristam here, and all the other deacons 
and trustees uphold us also — it is of the greatest im- 
portance — the very greatest — that you should set 
yourself straight before Bellicose in regard to the 
strange things that you said the night of the debate. 
For they were strange, pastor; very strange; and 
people are saying ugly things about you. Now sir, 
we have called on you as friends. We call on you in 
your own interest, and in the interest of Union Tab- 
ernacle. We call on you to ask you to authorize us 
to make some statement for you that will take the 
rough edge, so to speak — off of your words; and 
make them harmonize with the patriotic sentiments 
of Bellicose.” 

^‘Or else, pastor” — joined in Mr. Tristam, senior 
deacon of Union Tabernacle ; evidently thinking 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


25 


that his pastor could not easily be persuaded into 
helping on a maneuver of policy ; or else, pastor, 
you just promise to say nothing at all. Let us 
explain things to everybody. We will fix things up 
for you. We will say that the orator like the poet is 
entitled to special license ; that he ought not to be 
taken literally to mean exactly what he says. If that 
does not suflB.ce, we are prepared to go further in 
your behalf. We will say to whom it may concern 
that all the enlightened world knows, and that they 
too ought to know that a man should never be called 
to account for what he says in debate before a parlia- 
mentary body. We will do this for you, as I say — 
provided that you will agree to drop the subject 
entirelv. That is the main thing ; we are united and 
firm in regard to that. We can probably open a way for 
you out of your trouble ; but you must help us by not 
opening your mouth hereafter on forbidden subjects.'^ 
^'Yes, pastor" — interposed Mr. Kitto, putting 
himself forward again — '^we insist on that ; as Tristam 
says. You have got yourself in trouble, and we stand 
ready to get you out ; but you must keep out here- 
after. You must now begin to do as we do; and 
make friends of your neighbors. Behold how good 
and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together 
in unity ! A prudent man foreseeth the evil and 


26 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


hideth himself. He does not antagonize the men 
and women who make up his own community. He 
knows that if he is to get along at all it must be by 
their aid ; so he acts accordingly.^’ 

Admirable advice, Mr. Kitto ! Admirable advice 
to give a man who aims at what the world calls 
success. But it has no weight with him who is laying 
plans to be hated above all men for Christ’s sake. 

We are willing to view your past conduct, sir,” 
continued the trustee — in the most favorable light. 
Let us say that you love to speculate in abstruse 
theories. Now speculation may be a fine thing for 
some regions ; but it is not what people want here in 
Bellicose. We want religion. We are a practical 
people, sir ; and we must have practical religion.” 

'^Brethren,” answered the pastor — ^^you remember 
who it was that said : ^No man having put his hand 
to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom 
of God.’ I must not falter. I must speak out my 
convictions. They are founded on knowledge which 
is higher than that which is regarded as ultimate in 
Bellicose. I hear people all around me ; people who 
are in bondage — boasting of liberty. I, who have 
looked into the perfect law of liberty must preach 
that law to them. This is my religion, brethren ; my 
practical religion.” 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


27 


The voice in the lower room began singing again. 
Its sweet tones seemed to attract a momentary atten- 
tion from the little group whose minds had been fixed 
on the pastor ; while on his heart the words : 

Jesus, I my cross have taken ; 

All to leave and follow Thee — 


fell with all the refreshing infiuence of a timely utter- 
ance of heartfelt sympathy. 

‘^The long pull and the strong pull is when all 
pull together.” The senior deacon was speaking 
again. ^‘If you do not confine yourself to the 
legitimate labors of your charge, pastor, we fear that 
you will do much harm in our community. Neither 
will the ill be unfelt by you. We are your friends, 
sir, and we warn you kindly. Many patriotic hearts 
have been shocked by the words and terms that you have 
been coupling with memories which they hold sacred.” 

‘^Brethren, how can I do otherwise than speak my 
honest convictions ? I have learned to call earthly 
things by the names that are given to them in the 
Kingdom of heaven. Hearts that are anchored to 
delusions must inevitably quail in the time of an onset 
of realities. I wish to awaken in the hearts of my 
people a yearning to rise into an atmosphere where 
they can see the things of this world in their true 
proportions.” 


28 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


But/^ expostulated Mr. Kitto ; ^Hhe very charge 
that is laid at your door is that you are not leading 
people toward heaven. You should try to spread an 
atmosphere of love about you ; and thus make earth 
like heaven. You are not making happiness. Your 
influence is disquieting. You are arousing antagon- 
ism. You are casting stumbling-blocks in the path 
of wayfaring pilgrims. You are becoming unpopular, 
sir. Do you not care for your character ? Have you 
no regard for public opinion ? 

Brethren, I am a follower of Him who made 
Himself of no reputation. I care for public opinion, 
only when it is made up of belief in the Word of G-od.^' 
Those words oh pastor, seal thy doom. The men 
before thee are the makers of public opinion in Belli- 
cose ; and are bitterly opposed to the Word of God. 
And when times are ripe, public opinion will demand 
thy homage or thy life. There is no release from 
this alternative anywhere in this present evil world. 
Bow down ye lovers of Truth — before public opinion ; 
or at its mandate ye shall be slain ; even as He was 
whose death warrant was sealed when the multitude 
cried out at the instigation of their manipulators : 
Away with Him ! Crucify Him ! " 

** Pastor,” interposed Deacon Tristam — the pur- 
pose of this visit of ours is a double one. We are 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


29 


come to implore you not to persist in closing up the 
channel of sympathies that exists between yourself 
and our people. We wish to set up a beacon, as it 
were ; to warn you not to drift out of the safe 
channel. 

The deacon, at an earlier period of his life had had 
seafaring associations ; and had picked up words and 
ideas which he frequently wove into his conversation ; 
and not infrequently mixed in his metaphor. 

Since you have been among us, he continued, 
^^we have learned to look upon you as a man of 
singular views ; of many singular views. Strange 
things have you said from time to time about the 
ties that bind human beings together ; and regarding 
the institutions which mankind cherish. Be content 
with oddity, sir. Have nothing to do with sacrilege. 
Leave unmolested, we beseech you, the names that 
we have learned to love while bending o^er history^s 
hallowed page." 

The pastor, being above the plane of existence 
occupied by the supporters of Union Tabernacle had 
always been somewhat of a mystery to them ; and it 
was no new thing for his words to be misconstrued in 
Bellicose. Once, when he said that where people 
love their neighbors as themselves family lines are 
obliterated ; his hearers declared that he had spoken 


30 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


against the holy estate of matrimony. Again, when 
he said that a republic does not help a man to live 
for the glory of God any more than a monarchy does ; 
his hearers called him an aristocrat and a tory 5 and 
said that he was an unaccountably strange man. 
And they thought him very queer indeed when he 
told them a certain parable or story, which he said he 
made use of to contrast Christ's plan for the forgive- 
ness of sins, with the ideas of modern Christians ; 
and also to point out how natural relationships 
might be made to serve a higher purpose than the 
corruption of children. 

The other reason of our visit is to ask," continued 
the senior deacon — ‘^why you, sir — a natural born 
citizen of our republic of freedom, are so hostile to 
principles which every liberty loving man reverences." 

It is true my friends," answered the pastor — 
Every question that was being put to him, was so 
evidently endorsed by all his visitors that he invari- 
ably made his replies to the group and not to individual 
questioners. It is true that my natural birth made 
me a citizen of a so-called land of freedom. But my 
spiritual birth absolved me from that citizenship, 
and gave me an inheritance in the true land of free- 
dom ; that land whose inhabitants are free from the 
bondage of sin." 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


31 


Again the voice was singing. The words : 

Where loyal hearts and true stand ever in the light ; 

All rapture through and through in God’s most holy sight— 

surely a marvelous sympathy of thought had sug- 
gested them ! 

Yes,” continued the speaker — aglow with 
spiritual thoughts — 1 am of the light and of the 
day. I am a new man in Christ Jesus ; and hate the 
things that once I loved. I have renounced all 
allegiance to the land that claims you for citizens ; 
for she sits in darkness. I would that your ears were 
open to the cry ; ^ Come out of her, oh my people ! ^ 
She is a daughter of hell. Her mission is to wear 
out the patience of the saints of God. They who are 
risen with Christ can have no part in her. She is 
determined that Jesus shall never reign upon the 
earth. Her name in the spiritual tongue is Sodom 
and Egypt where also our Lord was crucified.” 

The perplexity in the minds of the little group had 
deepened into mystification. The dissatisfaction in 
their hearts was hardening into anger. Here was a 
man from whom they had hoped to draw tokens of 
repentance, talking to them as if they had never 
separated themselves from the gall of bitterness and 
the bond of iniquity. Talking thus to men — each 
and every one of whom could name the year, month. 


32 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY, 


day, hour, and minute of his conversion. Here was 
a man to whom they had come to offer instruction, 
as to one possessing at least some perceptions of 
patriotism, holding them silent while he forced upon 
them a foul mess of treason garnished with religious 
phrases to give it a seductive appearance . Here was 
a man deliberately renouncing and spurning a citizen- 
ship that men all over the world long and struggle to 
obtain. Here was a man talking about the new birth 
as though it was a breaking away from allegiance to 
civil government. And the man was speaking as 
though he really believed what he said ! 

Had these hearers been living in environments like 
those which closed in around their posterity in after 
years, they would not have hesitated to term their 
pastor's confession of loyalty to Christ a statement of 
views." Nor to attach to the speaker some name 
invented by purveyors of slang phrases for mean 
creatures to use when speaking of brave souls ; nor to 
say that he was showing symptoms of brain softening. 
But being as they were, intimations of the invulnera- 
bility of his logic seemed to pierce through their 
resentment and their bewilderment. They seemed to 
see dimly that they were confronted by a type of true 
manhood. Because they were living a generation 
ago— -in a community where the belief that man's 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


33 


estate has very little to do with the stature of Christ 
had not been wholly accepted as infallible. Because 
they were living a generation ago — in a community 
where the loyal expectation of the church visible 
had not wholly died. Because they were living 
a generation ago — in a community where those 
manifestations of the children of Satan which men 
speak of as the achievements of human progress, had 
not grown alluring enough to be fully endorsed by all 
those who call themselves Christians, as a satisfactory 
substitute for the manifestation df the sons of God. 

Mr. Kitto, who had by this time collected some 
ideas ; and who believed that the true way to use a 
belief is to air it ; opened his mouth at his pastor again : 

^^Are not your ideas somewhat confused sir? 
Liberty is of different sorts; that is to say, civil 
liberty is one thing; and religious liberty another. 
Our institutions guarantee to our citizens both civil 
and religious liberty. They give to men the privi- 
lege of governing themselves ; and also the privilege 
of worshiping God according to the dictates of their 
consciences.^^ 

^^Men cannot govern themselves,” answered the 
pastor, nor can human laws give them such power. 
Men, in their moral acts and utterances are governed 
either bj? God or by Satan. They are impelled either 


34 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


by good or by evil desires. Where men are moved in 
any degree by Satan, there is bondage. Where men 
are moved wholly by God, there is liberty. Nowhere 
do civil powers permit men to worship their Heavenly 
Fatlier in spirit and in truth ; to worship the Lord 
in the beauty of holiness— to be followers of Christ— 
to love their enemies. Civil powers everywhere 
assert a right to compel men to kill their enemies. 

‘^Men may fancy that human laws can confer 
liberty ; but they are deceived. Liberty is a gift of 
God, vouchsafed only to beings who are qualified to 
receive it ; beings who are prepared to act solely for 
the glory of God. The very language of men who 
talk of achieving liberty for themselves shows that 
they are in bondage to Satan. Behold a verification 
of this in the promulgation of intentions published 
by your forefathers. In what they called their 
‘ declaration of independence ^ read their confession 
of submission to the devil. ^ All men,^ so runs their 
assertion ^ are endowed by their Creator with certain 
rights ; among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness.^ The Word of God shows clearly that 
life is not a right of man ; but that his present exist- 
ence is an opportunity for him to begin to glorify 
God. The Word of God reveals that liberty is free- 
dom from sin. To talk of freedom from sin as being a 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


35 


natural right of man is to talk foolish babbling ; as 
you, brethren, will readily admit. And instead of 
teaching that men have a right to the pursuit of 
happiness, the Word of God says plainly to man that 
it is his duty to follow Jesus Christ at all cost and 
hazard.” 

Well, pastor” — said the trustee — '^Andrew Jack- 
son has been credited with knowing something about 
patriotism ; and something about religion too. I do 
not suppose however that you will admit that he knew 
what he was talking about, when at his dying hour 
he summed up his lifers belief by laying his hand on 
the Bible and saying: ^ That is the rock on which our 
nation rests.' ” 

He certainly talked vaguely,” answered the pas- 
tor ; ** but to my mind he was not so misguided as 
was George Washington when he, red-handed with 
the blood of his fellow-men, partook of the Lord's 
supper ; believing himself to be at his Master's table. 
He who believes in the Word of God knows that an 
unrepentant slayer of his foes cannot hold communion 
with Him who said : ^Love your enemies."' 

The visitors had started to their feet on hearing 
these words. Pastor, this venting of spleen is 
mere bluster ! ” The voice of the trustee was 
sounding again ; and in tones angry and loud. It 


36 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


cannot be that you are seriously trying to sow treason 
and infidelity in our hearts. 'Twould be in vain sir 
to try it. We are far too well enlightened. You 
cannot possibly construe that command of our blessed 
Saviour which you have just quoted, into a denial of 
the right of free men to take up arms in defense of 
their country. When Christ spoke of enemies He 
meant our own enemies ; he did not mean the ene- 
mies of our country. This in one breath ; and in the 
next : To fight for our country and for our fiag is 

to fight for our hearthstones and for our families, sir. 
And you denounce such men ! You scofi at the 
virtue of : 

— the brave, who sink to rest, 

By all their country’s wishes blessed. 

‘^You, a preacher of Christianity! You who 
ought to be the very first to stand up for the good, 
the noble and the true — ^heap infamy on memories 
that men hold most precious ! You, alone of all the 
world ! On earth below and in heaven above they 
who fall defending their hearthstones are accounted 
Christian martyrs : 

By angel hands their knell is rung : 

By forms unseen their dirge is sung ; 

There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray, 

To bless the turf that wraps their clay. 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


37 


** Where is the man ; aye, where is the Christian 
who would not do battle for his home ! What, sir, 
would you say, if to-morrow the defenders of freedom 
should be called to arms; and if you should see orthodox 
Christians falling into line, and marching away 
rank after rank ? — as they certainly would in such a 
crisis ; and members of Union Tabernacle not in the 
rear, either.^' 

There would be no need for me to say anything,” 
replied the pastor. ^^Your own Bible has already 
spoken in regard to men who band themselves 
together in such a manner: ‘Though hand join in 
hand the wicked shall not be unpunished.^” 

“Woe unto them that call evil good ; and good 
evil ! Have you never read words like these in the 
Bible, pastor ? Union Tabernacle, sir, is of the 
Church militant. Its congregation is composed of 
Christians who are the descendants of fighters.” 
That stanch champion of his forefathers, Mr. Kitto, 
was speaking again. “ The descendants of fighters, 
sir, who bequeathed to their children this watchword : 
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.” 

“The fathers have eaten a sour grape,” said 
the pastor — “ and the children's teeth are set 
on edge. The congregation of Union Tabernacle 
i would find it hard to reconcile their motto with 


38 


A TRUE SON or LIBERTY. 


Truth ; for the Word of God reveals that the price of 
liberty is everlasting love." 

The champion of his forefathers was not yet done. 

If you mean to say, pastor, that when the heroes of 
seventy six took up arms to resist oppression they did 
not do their duty as Christian men ; that acts such 
as theirs are not fully approved by Almighty God — 
you not only confess total inability to comprehend the 
mystery of godliness ; but also woful ignorance of 
your own Bible. Over and over again that Book 
speaks of occasions when God commanded His people 
to smite their oppressors ; to slay them ; yea to 
spare them not. Art thou a master in Israel and 
knowest not these things ! Time and time again, the 
Bible says that when such commands were obeyed ; 
when God's own chosen people put their enemies to 
the sword — men, women and children — He was well 
pleased and gave signal tokens of approval. Well 
did the children of Israel know that Jehovah Him- 
self led them against their foes. Immediately after 
they had slain twelve thousand of their enemies and 
had burned their city, Joshua built an altar unto the 
Lord God—" 

Which," interposed the pastor, maybe a grand 
precedent for preaching the doctrines of Satan 
in a pulpit consecrated to the preaching of the 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


39 


Word of God; but I am not doing that kind 
of preaching. 

Preach this, pastor” — said Deacon Tristam — 
** for it is what we all love to hear : America, and the 
Bible ; one and inseparable ! To attack one is to 
attack the other.” 

Amen ” — said the pastor — with all my heart, 
amen ! Brethren ” — he continued, searching earn- 
estly the eyes of one and another of the little group 
that surrounded him — what do'you understand me 
to mean when I speak of the Word of God ? ” 

‘‘ Why, the Bible, of course ! The Bible ! ” broke 
forth from many lips. The Holy Bible ! The 
Old and New Testament, comprising the sacred 
Scriptures ! ” 

Yes ” — sighed the pastor, I thought that you 
misunderstood me. When I speak of the Word of 
God I speak of that Word which was made flesh and 
dwelt among men. I speak of that Word which is 
full of Truth. I speak of that Word which is 
Truth.” 

O Word of God Incarnate 
O Wisdom from on high — 

sang the singer. Once again the close correspondence 
between the burden of the hymn and the burden of 
the speaker's utterance was lost to all save one. 


40 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


Once again the sweet tones of the singer’s voice 
seemed to attract a moment’s notice from the little 
group in the pastor’s study ; but once again attention 
was too strongly bound to the speaker, to wander. 

^^Must we understand you to say, pastor” — 
inquired the trustee ; must we understand you to say 
sir, that it is your intention to put yourself still 
further at variance with Christian believers ? Must 
we understand you to say that you are determined to 
make the gulf that lies between yourself and them as 
deep and as wide as possible ? Surely it cannot be 
that you deliberately choose to cut yourself altogether 
away from hope. Surely you will think long and 
well before you let the infidelity that has taken hold 
of you drag you into apostasy. Surely you will not 
turn your back upon the Bible. Surely you will 
recall what you have said. Surely you believe the 
sacred Scriptures ? ” 

believe in Jesus,” said the pastor. ^^In 
believing in Jesus I believe in the Word of God.” 

Hark to the response ! The singer is translating 
the pastor’s majestic and matchless creed into a hymn 
of praise : 

Thou oh Christ art all I want — 
she sings. And the pastor feeling that his soul is 
imbued with excelling strength continues . 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


41 


^^The Bible contains both genuine Scriptures and 
spurious writings. In separating the Scriptures of 
the Bible from the false records, I am guided 
by that test which Jesus gave to His disciples 
for the discernment of Scriptures : *They are they 
which testify of me.^ Brought to this test, every 
part of the Bible which says that God has com- 
manded men to kill their enemies, or that God 
approves of such an act, must be rejected. It is not 
Scripture. Such passages do not testify of Christ ; 
they contradict Him. The commandment which 
Christ brought from God to men in regard to enemies, 
is: ^Love your enemies.^ Search the Scriptures well, 
my brethren. They are they which testify of Jesus. 

In behalf of the congregation of Union Taber- 
nacle, pastor” — said the trustee — ^^and that congre- 
gation will, I doubt not, bear me out in what I now 
say ; I declare to you that if your friends were not 
willing to remain quiescent under your atrocious 
assault upon the palladium of our liberties, far less 
are they ready to join with you in undermining the 
corner stone of our religious faith. Sir, I can prove 
to you that you are ridiculously unfit to be a leader of 
thought in Bellicose ; or any place where orthodox 
Christian believers assemble themselves together 
Prophets, priests and kings of the old dispensation — 


42 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


did they not all testify of Christ ? Sir, you are as 
weak in religious knowledge as you are foolish in 
political argument.” 

am thinking of a prophet who did not bear 
witness of Christ,” remarked the pastor — passing over 
the attack without notice ; '^that prophet who cursed 
little children. Christ blessed little children, saying: 

‘ of such is the kingdom of heaven. ’ But there is no 
need for me to condemn the witnesses that you have 
fastened your faith to. Jesus grouped them all to- 
gether, and said : ^All that ever came before me are 
thieves and robbers.’” 

'^Brethren,” said the trustee, turning to his asso- 
ciates — and holding up his left hand before them 
with its fingers spread wide open, I believe that the 
results of this Christian effort to convert a brother 
from the error of his ways may be summed up thus” — 
with the forefinger of his right hand telling off on the 
extended fingers of his left hand, one by one, his 

results” as he named them. We have heard the 
honored patriot Andrew Jackson sneered at as an im- 
becile. We have heard the Father of his Country 
denounced as a murderer. We have heard our beloved 
native land called a daughter of hell. We have heard 
our precious Bible called a pack of lies. And we have 
heard those men of old who spake as they were moved 


THE PASTOR UTTERS MORE HERESY. 


43 


by the Holy Ghost, called a set of thieves and robbers. 
Brethren — in my opinion we ought now to abandon 
this effort and say good-bye to our pastor.^’ 

Then they left him and went out into the night. 
Turning their backs on the Light of the world, they 
went forth into darkness, with a light within them 
that was darkness blacker than any darkness that had 
ever descended upon the earth on any night in any 
year of its long gloomy history. A darkness which 
their souls delighted in. A darkness which they with 
their whole hearts had sought after; and which they 
prayed that they might never be delivered from. A 
darkness which they loved to sink down deep into; 
and to wrap close around them while they recalled 
and gloated over evil deeds that had been done 
within its shelter. A darkness which they loved to 
steep their eyes in; so that leading each other down 
new by-ways of unrighteousness they might stumble 
and fall headlong into a foul ditch of iniquity. 


44 


A TKUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


CHAPTER III. 

THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 

This is the story which the pastor told to his people, 
for the purpose of contrasting ChrisPs plan for the 
forgiveness of sins with the ideas of modern Christ- 
ians; and to show that the family circle ought to be 
made to serve a higher purpose than the corruption 
of children. 

The dwelling of a kindly man whose latch-string 
always hung on the outside of his door, was entered 
one day by a company of his kindred. 

^^We are come — oh kindly man,” said the kindred — 

to partake of your hospitality; and to recompense 
you therefor by putting vapid and noxious droppings 
into the ears of your children.” 

Being altogether willing to give you happiness,” 
replied the kindly man, cannot turn you away 
unsatisfied ; therefore I will ask the housewife to set 
forth good cheer until you take your departure ; 
promising myself meanwhile, that when I have re- 
gained possession of the ears of my children I will 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


45 


pour therein a wholesome antidote ; hoping that it 
will nullify your vapid and poisonous droppings before 
they have obtained permanent lodgment." 

So the kindred sat at the board of the kindly man, 
and began to partake of his hospitality and good cheer; 
and to recompense him therefor by dropping vapid 
and noxious sayings into the ears of his children. 
While the entertainment was progressing, the door 
was again opened and an outcast entered, addressing 
the host in these words : 

The sight of a latch-string hanging on the outside 
of your door, oh kindly man, emboldened me to enter. 
I crave a morsel of food from you, for I am very 
hungry." 

'^Welcome, most heartily, friend !" exclaimed the 
kindly man, going to the newcomer and clasping his 
hand. Then leading the way to the board, the host 
prepared a place for the outcast and seated him among 
the kindred. But they, drawing away as far as possi- 
ble, with intense disgust showing on their faces, 
began to grumble and to say: 

It would be far more fitting to give this man a 
crust of bread in some corner. Why is his ill-smell- 
ing person thrust upon us in this manner?" 

‘^In order," replied the kindly man, ^Hhat I may 
bring to his mind the memory of by-gone happy days. 


46 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


when comforts like these were his own. Or, in order, 
if such days were never known to him, to put into 
his mind a desire to be the possessor of pleasant 
surroundings. In either case, to sow in his heart 
the seeds of hope and manly resolution.” 

If fortune were his, does he not deserve the con- 
comitants of beggary, oh kindly man, for having 
descended into it? If he has always been an outcast 
is he not accustomed to his lot; and is it any hard- 
ship to him? Your attentions to him are as silly, as 
they are to us odious and galling.” 

'^Consider,” answered the kindly man, ^^the 
odium and gall that have been dealt out to this un- 
fortunate one; and help me to ameliorate his condi- 
tion by offering him, freely, welcome and cheer that 
may soften his heart.” 

Here the outcast, who had been ravenously devour- 
ing everything within his reach, took umbrage at 
some arrangement of the viands, and began to curse 
and swear in a manner most startling and horrifying. 
The kindly man immediately sent his children out of 
the room, shutting the door behind them. 

Why do you turn out your own children, oh kindly 
man ! ” exclaimed the kindred in united voice. ^^Why 
do you turn them out and persist in harboring this 
outcast ? Why is it, unnatural one, that you prefer 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


47 


the companionship of this vile creature to that of your 
own flesh and blood ? 

^^My children are ever with me/^ answered the 
kindly man, ^^and the peaceful influences of a happy 
home are always theirs; but this may be the only 
chance that I shall ever have to save this unhappy 
creature from a fate to which he is hastening. There- 
fore, for the moment I sacriflce my own comfort and 
that of my children; hoping that I may be able to 
exert a softening influence on the heart of this out- 
cast. Perhaps he was the child of a parent whose 
antidotes were not powerful enough to resist the 
poison instilled in the minds of his offspring by a 
faithless kindred.” 

At this the kindred cried out angrily: '^We were 
glad to partake of your good cheer, oh kindly man, 
but our gorge rises up against your sentiments!^ 
Then they strode out through the door. 

Hardly had they departed, when the outcast rose up 
murderously against the kindly man; and leaving 
him for dead on the floor, made spoils of whatever 
valuables he could conceal about his person, and 
slipped softly from the house. 

But the outcries of the housewife alarmed the 
neighbors, who arresting the flight of the assassin, 
brought him back again and into the presence of the 


48 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


kindly man, who by this time had managed to 
crawl to his bed, where he lay a bloody and pitiable 
spectacle. 

^^Have you anything to say to this miserable 
wretch^' — asked the neighbors — "^in regard to the 
enormity of his crime?” 

Friends,” said the kindly man, in the loudest 
whisper he could summon, I commit this unfor- 
tunate man to your care. Surround him with eleva- 
ting influences; and lift him to a height that will 
enable him to view his conduct in a new light, and 
that will make a different sort of man out of him.” 

That is what we are about to do, oh kindly 
man ” — answered the neighbors. The elevating 
influences are at hand” — slipping a rope over the head 
of the outcast. After he has been lifted up by our 
hands he will be quiet and inoffensive — a very differ- 
ent man from what he has been hitherto.” 

But the kindly man was horrified. Do not take 
the poor fellow^s life,” he pleaded; still speaking in 
hoarse whispers. I bear him no ill will. Let us 
reason about the matter. He is not wholly respon- 
sible for his acts. Regard him as a victim of harm- 
ful surroundings. Whatever has been his previous 
condition, is it not true that he has been brought to 
this present pass, not by real choice on his part — ^but 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


49 


by the working together on him of all the bad 
influences by which he has been surrounded? His 
bloody deed is in reality the essence of all the evil 
words and acts that have been uttered and done 
within the apprehension of his consciousness, burst- 
ing through a resolution and finding an outlet 
through a nature, that have been weakened and 
warped by improper training.” 

While you are theorizing, oh kindly man,” said 
the neighbors — ^^we will act the part of practical 
men.” Then they led the outcast forth and hanged 
him on a tree by the door. 

^^Nevertheless ” — sighed the kindly man, as looking 
through the window from where he lay on the bed, he saw 
the body swinging in the wind — ^‘that is not the way 
to reclaim an outcast; nor is it a step towards destroy- 
ing influences that are impelling unfortunate human 
beings away from paths of righteousness and peace.” 

The pastor told his hearers that the story showed 
in allegory, the yearning of their Heavenly Father, 
for the reclamation of wanderers. That as the door 
of the kindly man invited outsiders to enter and par- 
take of hospitality and good cheer; so too does the 
door of the kingdom of heaven say to everybody: 

Knock and it shall be opened unto you.” That as 


50 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


the kindly man told his guests to receive the outcast 
among their number; so does the Heavenly Father 
bid dwellers in His mansions show forth the univer- 
sal brotherhood of man. That as the kindly man 
sacrificed temporarily the comfort of his own family 
in behalf of the outcast; so does the Heavenly Father 
subordinate the present well-being of His own house- 
hold to the reclamation of those who are astray — 
saying to His people : Do good to them that hate 
you.” 

The pastor also called attention to the enormity of 
the ingratitude of the kindred; who while partaking 
greedily of the hospitality of the kindly man, hated 
and scouted his utterances. He likened this to the 
conduct of men who while professing to be of God^s 
family, and while being blessed by His loving kind- 
ness and bounty, ignore the laws which He has given 
them. ^^But,” asked the hearers, ^^how does the 
story show that modern Christians are ignorant in 
regard to the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins?” 

^^We obtain pardon for our sins,” replied the 
pastor, when we forgive those who sin against us. 
' If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will 
your Father forgive your trespasses.^ Do modern 
Christians strive in the right way to obtain pardon 
for their sins? Do they freely forgive those who 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


51 


trespass against them, as the kindly man forgave the 
outcast ; or do they, like the neighbors in the story, 
believe in a code which rewards robbery and murder 
with imprisonment and death? In dealing with 
wrong doers, are modern Christians actuated by the 
promptings of mercy — or do they demand eye for eye 
and tooth for tooth? Do they seek to overpower 
transgressors with love, or do they wield against 
them the arm of law?^^ 

To the listeners, these questions did not seem so 
thoroughly meaningless — so utterly absurd, as such 
questions seem to their descendants who are living 
to-day. For a generation ago, the faith of professing 
Christians had not been wholly separated from the 
principles of Him who loved not His own life; had 
not been wholly attached to the first law of human 
nature. Self -protection was not to them Alpha and 
Omega; and self-sacrifice even on lines like those 
chosen by the kindly man was not wholly unknown. 

Still it cannot be otherwise, than that men who 
believe that God wants them to slay their enemies, 
are men who can be taught that it is right to deal 
violently with offenders who are of their own com- 
munity; and the leaven of Mammon was competent 
to work out a showing of this in Bellicose. It was 
only needed that means of transit should be run out 


52 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


to the uttermost parts of the earth; and should draw 
in from thence a population that would transform a 
little settlement where men held intercourse with 
each other almost as members of one family, into a 
^reat metropolis where men would be separated into 
clusters and classes ; and where the dealings of each 
with his fellow-men outside of his own circle, would 
suggest to an onlooker any thought rather than: 
^^All ye are brethren.” It was only needed that the 
supporters of Union Tabernacle should see in this 
influx of men, a widening of opportunity to roll up 
treasures on earth; and should make it their chief 
purpose to establish relations with their neighbors 
with that end in view. It was only needed that 
mighty agents with all-comprehensive arms should 
gather up the thoughts that grow out of and are afiil- 
iated to such commerce of men with each other — 
spread them out in Bellicose, and offer them to the sup- 
porters of Union Tabernacle for a practical bread of 
life. It was only needed that sons born of men 
nourished on the maxims that belong to the phil- 
osophy of “social progress” should reach maturity. 

These changes only were needed to sink Union Tab- 
ernacle of Bellicose down to the place that it occupies 
to-day. Down to the level that men are on whose 
hearts are set upon the gathering of riches, and 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


53 


infidel as to belief in the brotherhood of man. 
Down to the level that men are on, to whom the 
Word of God is made meaningless by the substitution 
in their minds of human plans of social reform, for 
God's plan of individual regeneration. Down to the 
level that men are on who are wholly unable to 
detect any inconsistency whatever in the creed : We 
helieve in Jesus Christ, and in 'punishing those who 
trespass against us. 

Where is the professing Christian to-day, who 
would refuse for Christ's sake to act as a jury-man? 
Yet how dare men who feel that they are sinners in 
the sight of God, take part in the condemnation of 
other wrong doers ! The sincere believer in Jesus 
knows that only a jury made up of sinless beings, has 
any right to make an accusation of guilt against 
transgressors. But for divine grace," says he; 

but for restraining thoughts which have been im- 
planted in me, I would have done all that the worst 
person on earth has done. I, who in my heart have 
been guilty of every evil deed, have been rewarded 
with loving kindness. Mercies and forgiveness I 
have freely received ; therefore I shall freely 
forgive." 

Then thunders the voice of public opinion : ^^Per- 
sonally you have nothing to do with the prisoner at 


54 


A TRUE OF LIBERTY. 


the bar I You are summoned as a member of society, 
to perform a duty which has been imposed on you by 
the people. The dignity and welfare of the community 
are committed to your care. If you refuse to act 
the part assigned to you by popular mandate, you 
undermine the bulwarks which society has built for 
its protection; and'’ — numbering the disciple among 
transgressors as his Master was numbered before 
him — you are an accomplice of criminals. If every- 
body should take such a stand as you are trying to 
take, what would there be to offer resistance to vio- 
lence and crime! What could save society from 
wreck and ruin! ” 

^'I care nothing for the will of the people," replies 
the believer in Jesus, ^^when it goes counter to the 
will of God. I have no part nor lot in that which you 
call society. I belong, I trust, to that little flock to 
whom it is God's pleasure to give the kingdom of 
heaven. Whatever trespass against me the accused 
may have committed, I forgive heartily for the sake 
of Him who raised me up alive when I was dead in 
trespasses and sins. I shall not encourage nor aid 
any attempt to subdue violence with force. If every- 
body should take the stand that I am now taking, 
there could be no violence. Society cannot count on 
me to help it to rid itself of the dangers which it has 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


55 


evolved by its own course of procedure. I care 
nothing for the salvation of society. My concern is 
for the salvation of men. If my attitude does any- 
thing to weaken the props upon which society and 
civilization rest, I am most heartily glad; for I know 
that they must be reduced to wreck and ruin before 
Jesus can reign King of nations, as he does now 
King of saints.^' 

^^See,^^ said the pastor, ''the principle which 
modern Christians are being beguiled into upholding. 
Trespasses and sins committed against individuals, 
are in these days called offenses against the community 
— which must be dealt with by acts prompted by self- 
protection. What is this enunciation but swelling 
words spoken against the Most High ! What but an 
attempt to make of none avail the divine law of for- 
giveness, by making it appear impractical to modern 
Christians; by putting it out of harmony with the 
tenets of social philosophy ! 

" See what efforts the Prince of darkness is mak- 
ing — he continued — "to deceive the children of 
light; so that their hearts — even the hearts of the 
very elect, shall be separated from the Word of God. 
Knowing that the most certain way to break the 
strength of the Scriptures so that they shall not be 
able to prevent modern Christians from working out 


56 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY, 


the devirs will, is to make the Scriptures obsolete; 
he, Satan, has put into the mouths of men new 
names for attitudes and acts that are hoary with age; 
giving them the appearance of new things that ought 
to be dealt with in a modern manner. The significance 
of the Scriptural word world has been destroyed by 
the modern word society. When the modern Christian 
reads that Jesus said of His followers ; ^They are not 
of the world even as I am not of the world’; he re- 
ceives therefrom no intimation that it is his duty as a 
follower of Christ, to refuse to give any support to the 
social fabric which surrounds him. Acts which Jesus 
spoke of as trespasses and sins, are now called crimes; 
therefore when the modern Christian reads that Jesus 
commanded His disciples to forgive without cessation 
all who trespass against them ; and when he reads 
that Christ emphasized His teachings by forgiving 
sinners, even the very worst, freely — he receives there- 
from no intimation of what his own attitude toward 
criminals should be.” 

But the warning was given in vain. In vain the pas- 
tor showed his hearers that the Lord’s jewels were being 
stolen away from the earth. In vain he showed them 
that even while men’s lips were praising God for an 
open Bible ; the Word of God wass being hidden from 
the sight of men as really as the Bible had been 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


57 


hidden, before the days of Martin Luther. In vain 
the pastor warned his hearers that they themselves 
were being bound hand and foot so that they might 
be cast into that outer darkness where there is wail- 
ing and gnashing of teeth. 

His was the patience, and his was the faith of the 
saints of God. Theirs was the impatience and theirs was 
the infidelity of worldly philosophers. He was abid- 
ing in the habitation of the Ancient of Days; therefore 
he could not influence men who were drifting with 
the tide of modern times. Alienation was inevitable. 

Professedly, the supporters of Union Tabernacle 
were Christians; but they were also modern thinkers, 
in whose minds the idea that God ought to be obeyed 
rather than man, was being more and more associated 
witli Antiquity. Although they had a desire to hear 
the will of God as expressed in the Bible; yet the 
avenues through which the will of God could lead 
them, were limited in number and were closing. The 
real resolve of their hearts was to heed the will of man 
as expressed in popular enactment. Although they had 
visions of eternal life their hearts were looking 
toward the gates of everlasting death; and guides 
that pointed in other directions they contemplated 
with disfavor. The Master might say: Follow me;^' 
the Spirit and the Bride might say : Come but if 


58 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


the invitation did not harmonize with the popular 
utterances of men, the invitation would be offered in 
vain. Divine revelation must coincide with human 
reason in order to be of practical use. 

Not a surprising condition for men to be in, whose 
forefathers had consulted the laws of nature, and 
of nature^s God*/^ that is to say the laws of their 
own nature, and of the God of their nature; in plain 
language the laws of the devil — to find out how to 
act towards their fellow-men. Not a surprising con- 
dition for men to be in, whose forefathers had published 
their declaration of independence of the laws of that 
God who is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. It 
was what might have been expected. And yet those 
men were not wholly blinded. They were able to see 
some difference between the civilization of the nine- 
teenth century and the resurrection of the just. 

But look at Bellicose to-day. See it, now that 
those foundations which were laid in perverseness; 
and which were builded on by children of con- 
fusion — have been received by the hands of benighted 
descendants. Look at it in these days, when an age 
of reason having almost wholly eclipsed the light of 
revelation is nearing a black meridian; and absolute 
belief in human law is unhesitatingly endorsed 
everywhere, within the borders of the community. 


THE STOKY OF THE OUTCAST. 


59 


Behold the churches now. See their supporters 
and the depth of their degradation. See their preach- 
ers — spurning the teachings of Jesus about earthly 
things — dogmatizing about spiritual things — talking 
about a Christ who never lived on the earth or anywhere 
else — and speaking of doubters of their doctrines 
as promoters of an infidelity that attacks the religion 
of Jesus Christ. 

Nevertheless, there is hope — there is certainty that 
light will dawn again, even on those who have driven 
out of their hearts Christas plan for the salvation of 
men by individual regeneration; and who have opened 
their minds wide to the teachings of worldly philos- 
ophers, and to their plans for the salvation of society 
by social reform. For as surely as the sun of the 
natural heavens disappears only to return again; so 
surely shall the Sun of Kighteousness arise again in 
glory, majesty and power. The morning shall 
break, the shadows fiee away and all the earth shall 
see the salvation of the true God. Yea — saith the 
Father Almighty : They shall all know me from 
the least of them unto the greatest. And speaking 
of His Word: ^^It shall accomplish that which I 
please and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent 
it.^^ Yea; saith the Word of God; if I be lifted 
up from the earth will draw all men unto me.'' 


60 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


Had the pastor been given to publishing his 
personal experiences, his hearers would have recognized 
the picture of the kindred repaying the hospitality of 
their host by putting noxious droppings into the ears 
of his children, as a fancy founded on actual events in 
the childhood of the story teller. 

They would have known of a parent who tried to 
lead his household into the kingdom of heaven with- 
out purging it of hindering influences ; not realizing 
that they who would seek those things which are 
above, must rise above conventionalities; nor the 
great principle that human hearts cannot be joined 
to spiritual ties until the bonds of natural relation- 
ship are loosened. 

They would have known of the consequences of this 
ignorance upon the life of their pastor. They would 
have known how unbridled tongues had kindled evil 
desires in a young heart that was being taught to thirst 
for purity and peace. They would have known how a 
faithless kindred seizing the opportunities offered by 
natural relationship, had implanted a perverse mind in 
a child who was being called like Samuel of old, to 
be a king and a priest unto God. 

They would have known of weary and bitter years, 
when a child of many hopes was wandering far from 
paths of righteousness ; and of a parent growing 


THE STORY OF THE OUTCAST. 


61 


hopeless of the efficacy of faith in Christ — growing 
tired of well-doing ; and grown cold hearted toward 
his Master, growing old. 

Bat the supporters of Union Tabernacle were not 
worthy to enter into the sanctuary of their pastor^s 
heart ; therefore they heard about it only in such a 
way that hearing they could not understand. 

Gladly would the pastor have raised them to the 
spiritual heights whereon he trod ; but they loved low 
levels. Their conception stopped far short of the 
knowledge that he who would be a follower of Christ 
must sunder his natural relationships. If they had 
been forced to trace the logic of their thoughts fully, 
they must have declared that Christ Himself was 
neglectful of duty when He forsook one who had 
natural claims upon Him, to lay down His life. 

But the pastor had learned to say: ^‘whosoever shall 
do the will of my Father which is in heaven the same 
is my brother and sister and mother.” 

In later days as the pastor drew nearer and nearer 
to his appointed end, the dwellers in Bellicose coupled 
the name unnatural man” with the other epithets 
which they bestowed on him. Yet they always con- 
sidered it wholly proper ; yes, laudable and evidencing 
fine attainments — ^for men to do unnatural and even 
repulsive things for love of science. 


62 


A TEUE SON OF LIBEETY. 


The pastor knew well that no matter how much 
the people of Bellicose might declare in words for 
love of purity in self and home, their real affiliations 
were for the vilest of the vile. It is always so in this 
present evil world ; and certain contingencies will 
surely reveal it. Let them arise, and let men be 
bidden to choose for a consort either the son of God 
or the rascal ; and they will always choose as those 
people did who once cried out : ^‘Away with this man, 
and release unto us, Barabbas. ” 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


63 


CHAPTER IV 

THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 

Beyond the veil which hid the secret of the pastor^s 
righteousness ; into that inner sanctuary of the man^s 
heart where was the record of the covenant which he 
had made with his Creator, no human being save one 
ever passed. Only he, the priest of God, knew the 
mystery of the sacrifice which he had undertaken to 
make. 

Yet the daughter realized that her father’s powers 
were different from the faculties of the men and 
women who surrounded him. This was revealed to 
her daily. It was shown unmistakably in his familiar 
speech. A frequent occurrence it was to hear him 
make answer to some commonplace remark — some 
ordinary saying that apparently had connection with 
only every day things ; in a manner which showed 
that his mind pierced through and went beyond the 
matters which other minds stopped to deal with ; and 
laid hold of things of wholly different character. 
And yet sometimes when she was drawn by her 


64 


A TRUE SON OP LIBERTY. 


father^s words to contemplate things spiritual and 
lasting, she was unconscious of being led ; and 
thought that she was in a frame of mind natural to 
herself. But she could not commune with the pastor 
in reality. When she tried she signally failed. 

Father^’ said she one day, looking up from a 
book of poems which she was reading; how often 
I have heard you say that the churches are not the 
real temples of God ! Here is the thought put into 
poetry. Does it not give you pleasure to meet thus 
with a kindred mind? Listen : 

The groves were God’s first temples, ere man learned 

To hew the shaft and lay the architrave 

And spread the roof above them — ere he framed 

The lofty vault, to gather and roll back 

The sound of anthems — in the darkling wood, 

Amid the cool and silence he knelt down 
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
And supplication.” 

‘^The words are not true my dear,” answered the 
pastor. ^^The groves were not God’s first temples. 
God’s first temples were the temples of liberty ; those 
human forms in which dwelt the sons of God in that 
world which was in early times.” 

And then in almost inspired words the pastor 
talked to his daughter about those wondrous beings, 
for whose momentous history archaeologists care 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


65 


nothing ; and of whom all traces, save the slight hints 
which the Bible contains, are lost. He spoke of the 
sons of God ; and of their high estate before they had 
fallen to the estate of a world lying dead in trespasses 
and sins. He spoke of the hopeless condition of man- 
kind until the day of Jesus the Kesurrection ; Jesus, 
that Son of God in whom the Heavenly Father is well 
pleased; that Son of God who kept His high estate — 
who finished the work that was given Him to do. 

Then the pastor spoke of his own faith in Christ 
as a wonderful counsellor. He spoke of the hope 
which he possessed, that he too had received power 
to become one of the sons of God. He spoke of his 
desire to follow Christ; to be one of those blessed and 
holy ones who have part in the first resurrection; 
who are raised into a newness of life to be witnesses 
for Truth in this present evil world. And he spoke 
of the coming manifestation of the sons of God; of 
the surely approaching glory and power of those 
whose portion is now shame and humility. 

The pastor had resolved that he would not allow 
himself to be robbed of his conviction that Jesus had 
the right conception of how men ought to treat their 
fellow-men. He believed that it is God’s desire that 
the earth shall be peopled with men fashioned in the 
similitude of Christ; and he determined that he 


66 


A TRUE sols’ OF LIBERTY. 


would do nothing to thwart that desire. With a 
resoluteness equal to that with which his contempo- 
raries used their faculties for the purpose of ‘^getting 
on ” in the world, and for the welfare of their homes ; 
he determined that he would devote his powers to 
pressing onward in the kingdom of heaven, and for 
the welfare of that mansion of the blessed. He would 
turn obstacles into stepping-stones; and compel 
opponents to serve him, even as they do who gain a 
mastery in this world's affairs. 

Yet he knew that to separate himself from the 
fashion of his surroundings; to make himself wholly 
out of place in the world — would not efface the 
record of opportunities misused and gone ; nor free 
him from paying penalty. This was the great sorrow 
of his heart ; a conviction which carried with it a grief 
deeper than any which loss of earthly friends or ease 
could sink him into; a sorrow which even entrance 
into Paradise could not remove. 

Although to him should be spoken the words: ^^Well 
done thou good and faithful servant!" — yet never 
throughout all coming ages would he be numbered 
among the truest followers of Christ. Xever— never 
while ransomed tongues continue to sing praises to 
Him who was, who is, and who evermore shall be, 
would his voice be permitted to mingle in the strains 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


67 


of that song which none can learn save they who have 
been redeemed from among men to be the first fruits 
unto God. To bear testimony for Truth ; and to be 
destitute, afflicted, tormented ; to confess Christ 
before men and to know the world only as a wilderness 
of woe ; to be submitted to every ignominy for the 
sake of the gospel of peace, and to be slain in its cause ; 
all this, the pastor knew, would not gain him a place 
in that company where none are admitted save they 
who lay down virgin lives for the love of J esus. This 
was his abiding sorrow. 

This was also the hidden impulse that moved him 
ever onward. In days of careless ignorance, before 
the full meaning of Christ’s gospel had been revealed 
to him, he had given his heart to an earthly being. 
He had married himself to a woman ; knowing not, 
and caring not to know that they only are without 
fault before the throne of God, whose espousals have 
been made with Christ. But it was ordained that his 
ignorance should be replaced with enlightenment; his 
carelessness be turned into repentance. Years passed, 
and in due time He to whose keeping it had been 
committed by many prayers, knocked at the door of 
the erring heart to take possession. Too late ! Too 
late ! Behold the Bridegroom cometh — but alas ! the 
wedding garment is not spotless. The bridal chamber 


68 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


is not garnished and clean. Some there are which 
have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of 
heaven^s sake ; and some there are who let their souls 
slumber while golden opportunities are passing ; nor 
awaken until after impassable doors have closed 
between themselves and purity. 

They who would be wholly consecrated to God 
must be sexually abstinent. Men and women who 
desire to have full communion with their Heavenly 
Father cannot have commerce with each other. 

The people who made up the community where 
the pastor preached, were wholly ignorant of knowl- 
edge like this. They did not even know that when 
a man resolves to put an end to sin in the flesh — not 
only must he strive after personal righteousness ; but 
he must also refrain from bringing into the world 
other beings who may be tempted into evil doing. 
The supporters of Union Tabernacle were not able 
to bear doctrines of this sort ; for such are deadly 
poison to the victims of that process of churching of 
men and women which was growing popular in 
Bellicose a generation ago — that process which sub- 
stitutes for the austere religion of Jesus a system of 
make believe. 

It is true that men and women of Bellicose in 
former times had been familiar with this knowledge 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


69 


and had been strengthened by it ; but spiritual natures 
were now so degenerate in the supporters of Union 
Tabernacle, that they rejected with loathing the 
pastor’s declaration that an ideal community cannot 
be where marriage is. Yet the same people listened 
without demur when he read that the resurrection 
they neither marry nor are given in marriage.’^ True 
it is as the philosopher affirms: ^^That which the dron- 
ing world, chained to appearances, will not allow the 
realist to say in his own words, it will suffer him to 
say in proverbs without contradiction.” 

The pastor’s daughter was so innocent that she was 
prepared to enter with one of the opposite sex into a 
relationship in which it would be her duty to hold 
herself in readiness to gratify his passions — she was 
about to do this, fully believing that she was entering 
into holy bonds. 

With God all things are possible. Although it was 
decreed before the beginning of time that Jesus must 
be slain; yet the prayer uttered in Gethsemane shows 
that it was possible for the cup of woe to pass from 
the lips of Christ. It was in God’s power to open for 
His beloved Son some way of finishing His work — 
other than the appointed way of Calvary. With God 
all things are possible. Although the Scriptures de- 
clare that the highest knowledge of the Supreme 


70 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


Being vouchsafed to men — the closest communion 
with Him, granted to them— is given only to such as 
have kept their virginity ; yet the pastor knew that 
God can, if it is His pleasure to do so, prepare some 
new way to fit men for the greatest privilege which 
He has opened for them. 

Trusting in God, and in His omnipotence, the 
pastor resolved that he would strive to make his great 
mistake his last error ; and that thenceforward he would 
labor to keep himself free from spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing. He resolved to put away everything 
opposed to God ; to connect himself with nothing 
opposed to the kingdom of heaven. All laws of his 
nature, which worked in any way to establish in his 
body conditions that would oppose the command- 
ments of his Maker, he resolved to trajnple down 
without remorse. All laws made by his fellow-men, 
which tended in any way to bring about conditions 
that would make of none effect the laws of the 
kingdom of heaven, he resolved to violate without 
scruple. 

He began to put his resolutions into practice; and 
he began to pay the penalty that is always paid by the 
man who sets at naught popular tenets and contemns 
his social surroundings. He persevered; and matters 
steadily grew worse. From believing him to be queer 


THE HIDDEK IMPULSE. 


71 


in his views on some matters, men grew into a habit 
of speaking of him and to him as though they believed 
him wrong-headed about everything. They seemed to 
think that he needed advice, instruction and correc- 
tion at all times. Whatever the subject was, upon 
which he spoke, they hastened to find fault with his 
statements. To correct him — to contradict him — to 
put him down — was always in order. As to his con- 
victions about matters of religious duty, men strove 
hard to turn him aside from the destruction towards 
which they said his feet were turned. They advised 
him to abandon the stand which he had taken — 
speaking as though it was a position which he had 
fallen into by accident — telling him to anchor his 
mind; to stop drifting; and holding themselves 
always ready to show him that the right was wholly 
different from the conception which he had formed 
of it ; always ready to prove to him that he ought to 
look at the world through their eyes. 

But the pastor could learn nothing from teachers 
who tried to impart knowledge of man, without know- 
ing what is in man. He saw men as they really are ; 
and knew that they are consistent only in that their 
logic and desires run the same way. The jangling of 
their discordant lives could not allure him whose ears 
were listening to the harmonies of the kingdom of 


72 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


heaven. Their own self-contradictory words and acts 
had driven him to ask if consistency can be found 
anywhere; to search for it and find it in the words 
and the life of Christ. How then could the words of 
such men now move him? 

That such a belief as their pastor’s could be the re- 
sult of sincere and accurate thinking, was an idea 
which the supporters of Union Tabernacle could not 
by any possibility entertain. They would have given 
their minds over to any delusion rather than accept 
his doctrine. It was a belief which they would not 
have known what to do with if they had possessed it. 

In their minds the kingdom of heaven was so ethe- 
realized, that to hear it spoken about as though it was 
a genuine presence; to hear it spoken of in compari- 
son with the American union, as though it was just as 
close at hand; was to them like hearing the talk of a 
person possessed by hallucinations. ^^The kingdom of 
heaven cometh not by observation,” they said. They 
had lifted it up; they had put it out of sight. They 
had relegated it to the domain of intangibilities ; they 
had transferred it to a place beyond the sky and farther 
away than the stars. They did not know that it had 
been established on the earth by Christ during His 
lifetime. '^After Thou hadst overcome the sharpness 
of death” was their belief, Thou didst open the 


THE HIDDEH IMPULSE. 


73 


kingdom of heaven to all believers/^ And yet they 
said of the pastor, that from constant brooding about 
death and the hereafter, his mind had become filled 
with morbid ideas. 

Nevertheless, he was not deluded. He knew that 
any and every dominion to which human beings are 
loyal, has its real abiding place in the hearts of men and 
women. He knew that there, in the hearts of men and 
women, the kingdom of heaven is, when established, 
just as actual as is the American union in its real abid- 
ing place. He knew that the evidences which follow 
the establishment of the kingdom of heaven are as 
clearly apparent as are the evidences of the existence 
of the American union. 

You believe, my friends” — the pastor often said, 

that there is a place far away to which Christians 
go when they leave this earth ; a place where all is 
peace and love; a place where no violence is ever done. 
That place is far away from you only as long as you 
keep it so. When you will it, it is close at hand. 
Die to the ways of this world to-day, my friends. 
Enter into the kingdom of heaven now; and do no more 
violence than you think souls ought to do after they 
have passed through the gates of the Celestial City.” 

The pastor had separated his interests so thoroughly 
from the interests of his neighbors, that he was able 


74 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


to think and speak of the doings of the upholders of 
the American union as freely as of the acts of a band 
of evil doers at his antipodes. He declared that of all 
evil spirits that have ever taken possession of men for 
the purpose of opposing the kingdom of heaven, the 
spirit of American independence is one of the worst. 

He proclaimed the American union as a union of 
hearts joined together in hatred of the Author of 
liberty, to kill thoughts of man^s duty to God; to 
put the mind of man above the mind of Christ ; to 
degrade and insult Jesus ; to enthrone and worship 
the devil. He proclaimed the American union as a 
union of hands joined together to desecrate, defile 
and destroy every temple of liberty; and to fashion 
cunning snares so that the souls of the very elect may 
be entrapped by Satan. He renounced that union 
of hearts and hands. He denounced it vigorously 
and unsparingly — saying that in the kingdom of 
heaven only doth freedom dwell ; and that the true 
temple of liberty is the body of that man or woman 
whose heart is filled with love for the Heavenly Father; 
and whose life is obedience to His commandments. 

But the supporters of Union Tabernacle were far 
from renouncing their allegiance to the American 
union. ^^We must render unto Caesar,” they cried, 

the things that are Caesar^s ! ” Which was exactly 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


75 


what their pastor kept charging them to do ; saying 
that they ought not to render unto Caesar the fealty 
which belongs unto God. 

Thus men continued to say their say at the pastor ; 
making conditions in which it was dangerous to up- 
hold truth, and advising him not to touch disturbing 
questions — recommending the policy of letting sleep- 
ing dogs lie. They who had educated their lips only 
to be glib in justifying and defending themselves, 
said of him who had taught his mouth to justify God, 
and to be steadfast in defense of Truth, that his 
tongue was just long enough to cut his own throat. 
They said that he did not know enough to care for 
his own interests; that he was more insignificant 
than a nobody. 

But the interests of Truth were well placed, being 
in his care. Ambition ! Energy ! Stamina ! To the 
very degree to which they who gain a mastery in this 
world^s affairs despise him who lacks these qualities, 
the pastor determined that he would loathe every 
weakness and tendency toward fearfulness. And the 
resoluteness with which men drive out of their minds 
thoughts of their souls^ departure from their bodies, 
he determined to equal and surpass in driving out of 
his heart every thought not belonging to eternal life. 
Even as hearts that are fixed on worldly success, in- 


76 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


stinctively reject every thought that opposes their 
course as soon as it is presented, so he determined to 
teach his heart to do for the cause of Christ. Resolv- 
ing to especially beware of that trait which is so prom- 
inent in the composition of human character and 
which is so fatal to trust in Jesus — the tendency 
toward accommodating self to its surroundings. 

The man who knows that it is entirely within the 
limits of possibility for circumstances to arise which 
will make his neighbors ready and eager to tear him 
limb from limb, cannot feel at any time any great de- 
sire to enter into close association with his neighbors. 
The bonds which had once held the pastor to his 
fellow-men were irrevocably broken, and he knew it. 
Others did not recognize the fact as yet ; and still 
looked on him as a man who might be reclaimed from 
the error of his way. Although he had exasperated 
them beyond measure, they still bore with him and 
labored for his reformation. At any time of day, on 
any street in Bellicose, he could have found men 
wearing that expression of countenance which people 
assume when they feel called upon to discipline some- 
body ; and eager to tell him that the bitterness which 
his heart knew so well, was of his own mixing. And 
so indeed it was. He had deliberately chosen to suffer 
affliction with the people of God. 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


77 


There were some who, calling themselves sympa- 
thetic, offered help from time to time by suggesting as 
something new to him, thoughts whose influence it was 
his daily struggle to overcome. Others, who said that 
they were liberal-minded, told him that doubtless the 
far distant future would be a day such as he desired 
to see ; but that his ideas were impracticable for his 
day; that he was far ahead of his times. To this he 
replied that peace had dwelt upon the earth already; 
that good will to men was perfectly manifested nearly 
two thousand years ago. 

The supporters of Union Tabernacle truly believed 
that they believed in the Prince of Peace ; and made 
many professions of their faith iirand love for Him. In 
their experience meetings they frequently told how 
God’s mercy had converted them from a love of the 
things of the world to a love for Christ. They said feel- 
ingly that their hearts had been renewed by divine 
grace; and that they rejoiced because they had been led 
into the marvelous light of the gospel. Who could show 
them that the light of the gospel was a light which they 
shrank from ; an illumination which they hated ? 
Who could teach them that the glad tidings of grace, 
mercy and peace to men, was the message above all 
others which their hearts were hardened against ; the 
message above all others which their lips refused to 


78 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


utter ? Not their pastor ; for they were determined 
to teach him. 

He could not show them that while they professed 
to be walking in light they were groping in darkness. 
He could not show them that while they were calling 
Christ their Master; and singing loud hosannas in 
His praise; and declaring that His kingdom shall 
have no end — they were crucifying Him afresh. He 
could not teach them that while they were glorifying 
Him and magnifying Him in words and phrases ; and 
professing great love for the Name that is above every 
other name — they were putting Him to open shame. 
No one could teach them these things. They had 
buried the Christ out of sight ; and were hoping that 
He would never rise again. They had hidden the 
Word of God under meaningless interpretations; and 
had learned to number among Christian acts and 
exercises, the imprisonment and slaughter of their 
fellow-men. 

The supporters of Union Tabernacle believed that 
they believed in Christ ; they did not really believe in 
Him. They did not hope that they might be made 
like Him ; so strong in righteousness as to be able to 
deal with men without using force or violence. They 
did not trust Him as a chosen leader. They did not 
think that it was necessary to follow Him. Jesus 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


79 


paid it air^ was the thought in the heart of each — ^^all 
the debt I owe.” All their debt of obedience to God 
having been paid by Christ, there was no need for 
them to obey God^s will. They put their thought 
into words and said it to their pastor when he spoke 
to them about the life of non-resistance to evil-doers 
which Jesus lived on earth. That was His mission ” 
they said. He was sent on earth to live the very life 
which He did live.” That it was their mission also 
to live and die as Christ had lived and died ; that 
they too ought to have in them a life conceived by the 
Holy Spirit ; that they too ought to be born without 
sin; to suffer; to be crucified, and die the death of 
malefactors — was a thought which they would not 
admit to their hearts. When it was offered for their 
consideration by the pastor, they scouted it — and called 
him a pessimist of the very worst type. They wanted 
him to be so full of foolish optimism as to believe that 
men can work for a millennium, by putting themselves 
in antagonism to the laws of Christ. 

Finally the postmaster, although not a supporter 
of Union Tabernacle, became so incensed at the pastor^s 
persistence in setting men's duty plainly before their 
eyes, that he changed the opinion which he had ex- 
pressed to the trustee, and said that the pastor was 
the worst dispositioned ” man he had ever known. 


80 


A TBUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


Plainly the pastor’s field was a hard one ; hut he 
wrought valiantly. If he ever grew faint-hearted ; if 
he ever felt as though he would grow weary of well 
doing — he was awakened to new zeal by the thought 
that if his soul should die, men would go about their 
business as calmly as if no calamity had fallen on the 
community. If his lips should become silent. Truth 
would not have a witness in all Bellicose. All other 
lips were sealed. And Truth’s enemies never faltered ; 
never showed signs of weariness. Every morning they 
arose with renewed determination to do the will of 
their father, the devil ; and every evening saw their 
tents pitched one day’s march nearer to perdition; 
saw their hearts more fully opened to thoughts that 
end in violence and murder. Why then should the 
advocate of peace grow weak hearted ! Let him learn 
perseverance from the vigor with which the children 
of Satan pursue their purpose. Let him make helpers 
of their never-tiring ardor and zeal. 

Strengthened by thoughts like these, the pastor 
continued to manifest Christ to men, by striving to do 
the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven ; and 
men continued to countenance, uphold and strengthen 
each other in striving by their words and acts to 
nullify his endeavor. They continued to answer his 
words, by saying things wholly foreign to his declara- 


THE HIDDEH IMPULSE. 


81 


tions; by asserting that he had stultified himself; and 
by laughing his doctrine to scorn among people who 
showed signs of having honestly inclined hearts. They 
used every method and device which the ephemera 
employ in striving to break down and wear out the 
souls of those who would inhabit eternity. Not one was 
omitted, as men pressed around the pastor — trying 
to stifie the life that was in him by aid of the 
death that they carried in their own bodies. Albeit 
they were not so dead, that they were not pricked with 
a consciousness that there was in him a likeness of 
the Master in whom they professed to believe. 

For death, life has no feeling that is not associated 
with repugnance and loathing. All the life that there 
is in the living, shrinks and draws away horror-stricken 
from the precincts of death. The pastor longed with 
all the yearnings of his soul, for the coming of the time 
when he should be summoned to leave the presence 
of that which was becoming to him more and more 
abhorrent. And in men’s eyes his countenance became 
changed. Outside his redeemed and liberated soul 
was a form which men hated. And in the hearts of 
his enemies steadily gathered a malignity toward him; 
whose intenseness it needed only the lapse of time to 
make evident. 

The pastor was alive and free. Around him were 


82 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


men in bondage and dead. And the dead knew not 
the living. Neither did the daughter know that it 
was life and freedom that made her father different 
from other men. She was far from knowing it. She 
thought that he had death in his soul. 

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead — ” 
she repeated, time and time again — 

“ Who never to himself hath said : 

‘This is my own, my native land 1 ’ ” 

Her father had never said it. Her own father was 
dead to all the feelings of patriotism which other men 
glory in. America, the land of the true-hearted and 
free; the thought of whose very name sent a thrill 
through her whole being — was powerless even with 
the might of all its matchless history, to awaken in her 
father^s breast one spark of a feeling of sonship. Oh, 
the hopelessness of such death ! How she had striven 
to overcome it ! Again and again in countless differ- 
ent ways, she had tried to kindle in her father's heart 
the flame of loyalty. 

She came to him all aglow with pride, one day, to 
read from a newspaper an account of unflinching 
heroism and unquenchable patriotism shown by some 
of her countrymen, who had been cast into the jaws 
of destruction ; who had sunk with flying colors into 
a watery grave. She thought that such a record of 


THE HIDDEN IMPULSE. 


83 


what patriotism can make men do, could not fail 
to draw from the lips of any man, responsive praise. 

A terrible storm had swept a foreign port where 
vessels of many nations were gathered. For hours — 
thro ighout daylight and darkness, and into angry day 
again — the seamen had struggled and fought against 
an inevitable doom. Torn from their anchorage and 
driven hither and thither by mighty winds ; beaten, 
battered and broken by giant waters; the vessels, gal- 
lant through all, had clashed one against another; had 
been thrown helpless on ragged reef, or foundered on 
sandbar. Every officer had stood at his post ; every 
seaman had done his duty. But grand above all, where 
bravery was a common possession, was the bravery 
shown by the sailors who manned a certain American 
vessel. She, rent asunder by another ship that had been 
thrown against her, went down ; went down carrying 
hearts true as steel. She sank under the sea with the 
American colors flying in triumph. She went down 
with band playing ^‘The Star Spangled Banner. 
She went down with every man at his post of duty. 
And as she sank, sailors aloft on other vessels gave 
cheer on cheer, in voices that rose above the roar and 
thunder of the storm. 

She is queen of the world, father I” exclaimed the 
daughter, with heaving bosom; with eyes flashing 


84 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


through tears ; and with cheeks aflame. '^America, 
the queen of the world ! Her men are the bravest, 
the most loyal and true ! All nations acknowledge it ; 
all nations do her honor.” 

Then the pastor told his daughter that the children 
of the resurrection — they who have been born into 
the kingdom of heaven — do not compare the domin- 
ions of the world with each other, but with the domin- 
ion of Christ. ‘^The patriotism which led those men, 
my dear, whom you have just read about” — he said — 
‘^to die heroic deaths; to go down undismayed to 
graves beneath the waters — leads men also to maim and 
slaughter their fellow-men ; to follow the flag which 
they believe in, through seas of human blood. The 
star spangled banner calls on the upholders of the 
American union to be always ready to shed the blood 
of their fellow-men. Against the commandment of 
Almighty God and against His majesty. The banner 
of J esus calls on men to prepare themselves to lay down 
their own lives for love of their fellow-men. I am 
enlisted under the peaceful banner of Christ. The 
flag of the American union, I abhor.” 


CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 


85 


CHAPTER V. 

CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 

The pastor was not a man to fill a theological pulpit; 
that was as clear as noonday. He utterly refused to 
be tempted into becoming one of those who shut up 
the kingdom of heaven, neither going in themselves 
nor permitting others to enter. His doctrines were 
all strange and meaningless to the people of Bellicose. 
When the supporters of Union Tabernacle petitioned 
him to insist that they who pass away from the earth 
without having gone through the form of baptism by 
water, are doomed to everlasting hell; quoting the text: 

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he 
cannot enter into the kingdom of God ; he asked 
his petitioners if they did nob think that when a man 
begins to drink of the waters of everlasting life, he is 
being born of water. When men asked the pastor to 
preach hell fire as actual fiames, such as are perceptible 
to human senses ; he asked them in return if their 
conception of the river of life was of actual water, such 
as the natural vision of man can see ; or of a fiowing 
of peace and righteousness. 


86 


A TKUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


When men catechised the pastor as to his belief in 
the Trinity, he said that his belief in the Three in One: 
the Way, the Truth, and the Life — in Christ Jesus 
could not be shaken. When men asked him to say 
definitely whether or not he believed in the divinity 
of Christ ; whether or not he believed in J esus as God 
embodied ; he said that he believed in Jesus Christ as 
infallible ; as Truth personified. And when the 
supporters of Union Tabernacle sang that the veins 
of a sinless being had been opened to pour out a 
fountain of blood for sinful beings to plunge into and 
be made clean ; their pastor told them that the declar- 
ation of their hymn was an untrue one ; that it was 
founded on a misconception of the meaning of that 
prophecy written in the Scriptures, which says: 

There shall be a fountain opened to the house of 
David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and 
for uncleanness. He told them that the fountain 
which had been opened in fulfillment of prophecy was 
the well of water springing up into everlasting lite, 
which Jesus revealed to the woman of Samaria. 

The pastor was a man who was constantly striving 
to turn the supporters of Union Tabernacle from their 
habit of straining at gnats and swallowing camels. A 
man he was, whose life was one continuous effort to re- 
move the landmarks which the fathers of the support- 


CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 


87 


ers of Union Tabernacle had set. ‘^Just as if/’ as 
Mr. Kitto frequently remarked, '^he is determined 
not to believe anything that the church of Christ 
believes, because the church of Christ cannot believe 
what he claims to believe.” 

He was declared to be unorthodox in every partic- 
ular ; yet he still clung to his belief that it is orthodox 
to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. A man he was, who 
tried continually to impress upon his hearers this: 
Until men believe the earthly things which Jesus 
taught, they cannot understand heavenly things. A 
man he was, whose usefulness as a teacher and a 
preacher in Bellicose had ceased ; and whose term of 
office was rapidly drawing to a close. Such was the 
opinion which the trustees and deacons had come to, 
very sorrowfully, they said — after their unsuccessful 
visit to the pastor. 

Nevertheless, they determined to give the man still 
one more opportunity to withdraw his odious declara- 
tions, and to reinstate himself. To that end they de- 
termined to draw up a set of charges against their 
pastor; lay them before the supporters of Union Tab- 
ernacle, and cite the culprit to appear and answer. 
He must either recant his heresies before the supporters 
of Union Tabernacle, and show signs of repentance ; 
or his pulpit must be d eclared vacant. More than once it 


88 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


had been more or less quietly suggested to him, that as 
his attitude was detrimental to the upbuilding of Zion 
he ought to retire from the ministry; but his invariable 
reply had been, that his desire was not to draw together 
a large congregation ; but to be a witness for Truth. 

No other church in Christendom, the supporters 
of Union Tabernacle declared, would have borne with 
a pastor as they had with theirs. Just think of it! 
A man pledged by the most solemn vows to stand up for 
the Bible, making most venomous and public attacks 
upon it. Not satisfied with denouncing the Christian 
belief of his befrienders; not even satisfied with 
denouncing his friends themselves; he tries to bring 
into public contempt Christianity as a whole; he tries 
to undermine the very foundations of Christian faith. 
He denounces the Holy Bible; that book which was 
written by men divinely inspired ; that book which is 
a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction; that book 
which has truth without any mixture of error for its 
matter ; that book which shall remain to the end of 
the world the true center of Christian union; that 
book whioh is the only true and inspired Word of Cod. 

The trustees and deacons held that the course 
which they had determined to pursue in regard to 
their pastor’s case was the* only course open to them. 
His sayings were being noised abroad. His relation- 


CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 


89 


ship to his flock was becoming a notorious scandal. 
Union Tabernacle was a stench in men^s nostrils ; as 
any church would be, if its pastor denounced his 
congregation as the slaves of Satan. He was always 
harping on that. Why did he not denounce a slavery 
which was actual, and in operation in another part of 
the land ? — that enslavement of men, women and 
children of the negro race, which was agitating liberty- 
loving pulpits everywhere. Why did he not point to 
real sins which other people were committing; and 
preach against them ? Why should he be forever 
bringing baseless charges against his own friends ? 
The thing had gone on long enough ; it could not be 
endured any longer. 

So a notice was served on the pastor that charges 
against him would be laid before the supporters of 
Union Tabernacle at their next business meeting; 
and he was requested to be ready to answer them. A 
copy of the charges, with specifications, was served on 
him at the same time. 

In the indictment were minor charges of conduct 
unbecoming to a minister of the gospel ; of declara- 
tions having been made which could not possibly be 
reconciled with any but atheistic doctrines ; of asser- 
tions which were calculated to ensnare unwary and 
feeble believers, to give offense to such as desired to 


90 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


be fed with the sincere milk of the Word, and to 
bring into discredit Christian faith and doctrine. As 
to specifications of times and places, a statement 
followed saying that the evils had not been done in 
the dark; and that attestations of witnesses were 
unnecessary, the thing being a matter of notoriety. 

But the great charge made against the pastor was 
blasphemy; in that he did upon the evening of a 
certain day, the date whereof was mentioned — in his 
own study, a place which ought to be almost as hal- 
lowed a spot as the consecrated sanctuary itself — in 
the hearing of witnesses whose names were afiixed : 

speak grievous things against the Holy Bible, 
namely : He said that it is counterfeit, spurious and 
unworthy of belief. Only an infidel heart could 
prompt a man to rush in where angels would not dare 
tread, and criticise the Word of God. Only a mind 
puffed up with atheistical conceit could lead a man to 
thus set himself up in opposition to his Creator, who 
when He was on earth said, not only that the Script- 
ures are true and wholly worthy of belief ; but also 
that they have in them eternal life. To take away 
anything from the Word of God is to take away ever- 
lasting life from men ; wherefore he that doeth it is 
accursed of God, even as St. John teacheth when he 
saith : Hf any man shall take away from the words of 


CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 


91 


this Book, God shall take away his part out of the book 
of life.' J^othing but an utterly blinded heart, and 
a wholly deluded mind could lead a man to believe 
that he can destroy any part of the "Word of God; for 
God Himself when He in the person of Christ was 
among men, said : ^ The Scripture cannot be broken. ’ " 
The indictment then pointed out, that as ^'the 
Bible was written under the direct inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, therefore to denounce it is to blaspheme 
against the Holy Ghost. It is to commit that great 
sin which, Jesus said, will not be forgiven in this world 
or in the world to come." 

Wherefore, brethren," ran the conclusion — ^'in 
view of the enormity of the offence committed by our 
pastor ; in view of the great reproach which he has 
brought upon the cause of Christ; and in view of the 
great desire which we have for the welfare of Zion ; 
we lay these charges before you. We would be shirk- 
ing our plain duty, were we to refrain from pointing 
out to you that a man whose afl&liations are with those 
who are accursed of God, is totally unfit to occupy the 
position of preacher of the Word of God. We have 
cited our pastor to appear before you in answer to 
these charges which we bring against him; and to 
show why his pulpit ought not to be declared vacant. 
But ‘we earnestly and devoutly hope that so extreme 


92 


A TRUE SOl^ OF LIBERTY. 


a step on the part of the church may be providentially 
averted; that our misguided brother may even at this 
eleventh hour be brought to see the error of his way; 
and that rejoicing may take the place of the sorrow 
which now possesses our souls.” 

Under the rules of order of Union Tabernacle, every 
adult member of its congregation was entitled to a 
vote at business meetings. Ordinarily, very few mem- 
bers of the congregation availed themselves of this 
privilege; and the transaction of business was left to 
those who had been received into full fellowship. But 
the night of the pastor^s trial showed a full house. 
Every man and every woman who was in any manner a 
supporter of Union Tabernacle ; and every one who 
had at any time been a supporter, was present. And 
many more, whose curiosity had led them to a spot 
where they could be spectators of the bursting of the 
storm. 

The bolt is about to fall. The man, over whose 
head threatening clouds have been gathering for so 
long a time, is soon to be stricken by their fury. All 
Bellicose wants to be present. The supporters of 
Union Tabernacle have done nothing which they desire 
to cover up ; neither do they intend doing anything 
which they would not willingly let all the world see 
done ; therefore why should their doors shut out any 


CAST OUT OF FELLOWSHIP. 


93 


one ? Throw them wide open ! Let all people know 
how vigilant are the guardians of Zion^s walls in 
Bellicose. Justice is to be meted out at last, after so 
long tarrying. The hour of Nemesis is come. Every 
seat is filled and every aisle ; while in and about the 
open doorway are clustered thick the lovers of equity. 
Though the mills of God grind slowly yet they grind; 
and the man who has sneered at the loyalty of Bellicose ; 
the man who has scouted its patriotism, and poured 
contempt and obloquy without stint upon memories 
enshrined and sacred, is now in the hall of judgment. 

By virtue of his office the pastor was moderator of 
business meetings; and occupied that position this 
evening until the regular routine work had been dis- 
posed of. He then vacated the chair. 

It was moved and seconded that a moderator be 
elected by ballot to fill the vacancy. This motion 
was carried. After the vote had been cast it was 
found that the choice had fallen upon Mr. Kitto ; who 
thereupon took the chair. He said that the business 
to be taken up was the matter of the charges which 
had been made against the pastor of Ifnion Tabernacle. 
It was moved and seconded that the charges be read, 
and that the pastor be asked to make answer to them. 
This motion also was carried. 

The moderator read the charges and then informed 


94 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


the pastor that the church awaited his answer. 

For a moment there was profound silence. Then 
the pastor took the floor. He said that the words 
which he had spoken in his study upon the night in 
question, to the trustees and deacons — and which 
words were misconstrued in the indictment — he had 
said at other times in other places to other people, 
many of whom were now before him. Heads in the 
audience were nodded in corroboration as the pastor 
said this; and signs of consciousness in many faces 
declared ; The witnesses are here.” 

That he should be called a blasphemer by his own 
people, the pastor went on to say, cut him deeply. 
But he remembered that when He who grew up as a 
root out of dry ground was wounded in the house of 
His friends, He too was called an utterer of blasphemy. 

f^Dry ground said the pastor. ^^How expressive 
is that term when applied to the times in which Christ 
lived. How well too it characterizes these times in 
which we are living. What was there in the words of 
the religious teachers of Christas time that pointed out 
God's will to men ? Nothing. That prophecy was being 
fulfilled which says: 'Many pastors have destroyed 
my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under 
foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate 
wilderness.' What is there in the teachings of 


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95 


the religious instructors of our day that points out 
the Word of God to man ? What nourishment is there 
for the trees of the Lord which He hath planted, to feed 
upon — in this dry and thirsty land where no water is?” 

The speaker, taking a Bible in his hand, held it up 
so that all could see it. 

Whether this book is, or is not inspired, my 
friends,” he said, is not to the point. Satan is 
inspired to do the work that he has to do. You must 
believe that ; for this Bible tells you that God says 
that He creates evil. This Bible is a book which is 
known as the Word of God ; a book which all who 
call themselves Christians reverence and glorify. This 
is a book which men and women teach their children 
to adore ; a book which people call Holy. He is a 
venturesome man who, in a community such as we 
live in, lifts up his voice against this book. He is 
bold indeed who couples any declaration of this book 
with the word falsehood ; yet that is what I have 
already done ; that is what I again do here and now ; 
and that is what I shall continue to do as long as God 
gives me power.” 

A ripple of excitement ran through the audience as 
the pastor uttered these words ; and faces which had 
been showing only interest and expectation, darkened 
with unmistakable signs of displeasure. 


96 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


The pastor bows his head upon his hand to shut 
out the spectacle before him. Again a feeling is upon 
him which has at times taken possession of him during 
his recent experiences. The events which are 
transpiring around him — are they actual ? More and 
more they seem like the movement of scenes which 
have no connection with his own veritable life ; like 
something which must be looked upon and which 
must be finished, before something which is now 
hidden can be made manifest. The men and women 
actors — are they real ? Moved as they are by impulses 
wholly unlike those which he obeys ; and answering 
as they do unhesitatingly and unfailingly the in- 
fiuences which inspire them ; more and more they 
seem like beings of an order wholly different from his 
own ; and devoid of the power of doing any work save 
that which they have been appointed to do ; unable to 
choose any course of action apart from that which 
they are impelled upon. And events following events 
seem in their aspects more and more familiar to him; 
as though he has been prepared for their advent ; as 
though he has known beforehand all that is to follow. 
Have his experiences been all foretold ; or are they a 
repetition of something which has already happened — 
something which he has met before? 

The scenes are old, oh pastor. The annals of time 


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97 


know them well. Towards Truth^s advocates the 
servants of Satan have no power to take any attitude 
other than that into which they are driven by their 
master. And their doings are hut part of a fore- 
ordained and foretold plan which makes all things 
work out good for the friends of righteousness. Time 
and time again, have lovers of Truth been thus set 
apart from those who, having their outward form and 
likeness, have none of their similitude. Time and 
time again, have they who have chosen to be strangers 
to the world been thus separated from their surround- 
ings, taught to forsake the abodes of death, and rise 
into realities to receive the fulness of life eternal. 

Look up then, pastor! The Word of God has 
redeemed thy soul; redeem thou the Word of God. 
Kescue the Christ from that oblivion in which He has 
been buried by servants of the Evil One. 

The pastor lifts his head, and in these words con- 
tinues his answer: 

Hear me my friends. I believe in the Word of 
God wholly, utterly, devoutly. But it is impossible 
for me to believe that the Bible is the Word of God. 
I do not believe that the Word of God has had or can 
have a double and contrary expression. I cannot 
believe that, can you? There is but one Word of God: 
the Word that was put into the highest possible form 


98 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


of expression; that was written in human flesh and 
revealed in Christ Jesus. Compare the utterances of 
that Word, with some of the utterances of the book 
which men call the Word of God. Behold Jesus, 
teaching that God is the Father of mankind; and 
that all men are brethren. Behold the Bible where 
it says that God has commanded men to kill their 
fellow-men. My friends, do you believe that God 
ever told any of His children to kill other of His 
children, their own brethren? You believe it if you 
believe in the Bible; but if you believe in the Word 
of God you spurn the declaration and brand it a 
hellish lie as I do, here and now. 

Think of the misery; think of the suffering; think 
of the bloodshedding that that black lie is answerable 
for! Think of the men who while professing to be 
believers in Christ, have been influenced by the Bible 
to believe that conditions can arise which make it 
the duty of men to slay their fellow-men. Think of 
that! Find an endorsement of that belief in the Word 
of God if you can. Cehold the Word of God, Jesus, 
amid surroundings which called for violence and 
bloodshedding, if they were ever called for on earth; 
behold Him, saying always by precept and by example: 
‘Love your enemies/ Saying also : ^ I seek not mine 
own will) but the will of the Father lohich hath sent me, ^ 


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99 


And saying \ ^ I do nothing of myself* And again : 
^ He that sent me is true; and I speah to the world 
those things which I have heard of Him* And again, 
most convincing of all : ^ The Father that dwelleth in 
me, He doeth the works * 

‘‘ Where shall we go for the words of eternal life if 
Christas words are meaningless? You profess to believe 
in Christ, my friends; you profess to believe in Him 
as very God. Is God unknowing; is He not om- 
niscient ? If Christ is God, as you affirm, was it 
not in wisdom that He spoke when He taught men 
how to find the Scriptures ? ‘ They are they,* He said, 
^ which testify of me.* In those passages of the Bible 
which declare that God has commanded men to slay 
their fellow-men, is knowledge given of Christ? I tell 
you, no! but by their power Satan has been lifted up 
in the place of God the Father Almighty. Who will 
help me tear the usurper down! Who will help me lift 
up Christ the Truth, that all men may be drawn unto 
Him; that all men may be believers in Him whose 
vesture is dipped in the blood of His martyrdom; and 
whose name is called the Word of God!^' 

Again a wave of excitement passed over the audi- 
ence of men and women, who all their lives had been 
talking about the Scriptures, without once asking : 

How can the Scriptures be discerned?^' Again dark 


100 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


looks of anger swept over the faces which confronted 
the speaker. This was no recantation. This ! The 
worst heresy — the most horrid blasphemy, that the 
pastor had ever uttered before was surpassed by what 
he was saying now. How dare he call the Holy Bible 
an instrument of the devil ! 

What came ye out for to see, oh generation of 
vipers? A reed shaken of the wind? Know ye not that 
the progress of the advocate of Truth is marked by 
ever increasing hostility to falsehood ? 

^^Oh, love the Truth as it is in Jesus” said the 
pastor, in conclusion — ^Uhat you may be able to 
escape all the wiles of the devil. Though Satan 
should come to you as an angel of light; though he 
should robe himself in a garment whereon is writ''^en: 
^holy;’ though he should lie in wait for your souls 
even among the Scriptures — cast him out, my friends, 
cast him out. 

^^Do not think that Jesus is the Word of God only 
in a mystical sense ; and that the name Word of God 
cannot be applied to Him with the meaning which 
men have when they apply it to the Bible. Christ 
only, is the Word of God in every sense in which that 

name can be used. Christ alone, has borne God^s 

0 

message to men. No message to men has come from 
God which does not speak to them as being given by 


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101 


a Father who is perfect, to children whom He would 
make like unto Himself. If men believe in the Bible 
as the Word of God, they reject Christ. If they 
believe in Christ they cannot accept the Bible as the 
Word of God. Choose ye ! Choose Him my friends 
whose throne is to endure for ever and ever. Do not 
fix your hearts on that which can endure only for a 
season. Believe in Christ ; of whom God hath said : 
^His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and His 
dominion is from generation to generation.’ Choose 
ye, my friends ! ” 

Alas ! They had chosen. The pastor, as he looked 
into their faces, realized it ; and knew that he was 
speaking in farewell. Slowly he passed down the 
aisle and toward the door. As he disappeared, the 
attention which had been fixed on his retreating form 
was turned to the moderator ; and long sighs of relief 
were heard, as though a burden had been lifted from 
many hearts. 

Brethren and sisters,” said Mr. Kitto, as he arose 
in his place — holding a manuscript in his hand, ^^you 
have heard our pastor’s answer to the charges which 
have been made against him. Instead of expressing 
sorrow for his wicked words and showing signs of 
repentance, he has renewed his attacks on the Bible 
and has emphasized them. He has made them more 


102 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


blasphemous than they were before. You are adults 
full grown’’ — he was reading from his manuscript — 

It would be out of place for me to undertake to teach 
you, here and now, anything about the Bible; or to try 
to give you new views about it. You know full well 
all that can be truthfully said about it. From earliest 
childhood you have, each and every one of you, been 
instructed in it. You know what it is; you know 
where it came from; you know what it has done for 
mankind. 

^^It is needless that I should tell you that its great 
object is to give an account of this world both in its 
origin and government, as the work of an Almighty 
Creator always and everywhere present ; and especially 
to exhibit the relation of man to this Creator ; and 
in consequence of that relation, in what manner and 
with what hopes he ought to live and die. It is need- 
less that I should dwell on the compass of the moral 
agency of the Bible, or speak of what it has contributed 
toward the mental life and culture of the great 
masses of human beings; of the phrases it has fur- 
nished for the sons of men to find expression of their 
joys and sorrows in ; of the myriads whose imagination 
has fed upon its grand language, and been lifted up 
by draughts from its wondrous fountains. It is 
needless for me to tell you that from within its covers 


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103 


have been furnished history, poetry, eloquence, 
rhetoric, logic and philosophy to thousands who knew 
no other book that represented an iota of these 
things. It is needless to tell you that so sublime is 
the conception it unfolds, of the Divine nature as a 
personal God exercising towards men the love and 
care of a parent to his offspring ; and in the system 
of human duties springing therefrom ; that on this 
consideration alone may rest its claim to being re- 
ceived as a direct revelation from heaven. 

^'It is needless, I say, for me to instruct you thus ; 
for you know the Bible well. You know that it came 
from God ; you love it, and will defend it as Christ- 
ians should. All that the present emergency, there- 
fore, calls on me to do — brethren and sisters — is to 
ask what you mean to do in the case of this man who 
persists in making scurrilous attacks upon the Word 
of God ; and who strives his utmost to undermine its 
authority. But before you give your answer let me 
tell you an incident which happened to me many 
years ago ; and which gave me that firm faith in the 
Bible which has ever since been mine. 

When a young man, I was examining with intense 
interest the evidences of the inspiration of the Bible. 
This led me to a careful reading of infidel objections ; 
some of which greatly troubled me. Retiring one 


104 


A TRUE S02f OF LIBERTY. 


night after wakeful hours of anxious thought, I fell 
asleep. I dreamed that I was at sea in a storm ; the 
billows about to engulf the ship ; on the deck of 
which were stored all the Bibles accessible to me. 
And suddenly came a mighty wave which, with the 
boom which it swept across the deck, bore from it 
every sacred volume, into the wild waves. The shock 
of the disaster awakened me in a perspiration from 
my agonizing agitation over the loss forever of the 
living oracles, to see the very Bible I had read a few 
hours before, lying on the table near ; reflecting 
brightly the light of the unclouded moon. My grate- 
ful surprise brought to my relief a flood of tears. 
While having no superstitious regard for dreams, 
from the time of that experience I have had no unrest, 
or passing doubt of the divine authority of the Holy 
Bible.” 

If there had been any unrest or passing doubt in 
the minds of the supporters of Union Tabernacle, 
there was none now. Mr. Kitto’s tale of a moonlight 
revelation had torn to shreds the pastor’s argument ; 
and the audience was a unit for his conviction. 

A motion was made and quickly seconded, that 
the pulpit of Union Tabernacle be declared vacant; 
and that such vacancy begin upon a date which would 
be six months from the date of the present business 


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105 


meeting. This suited the temper of the people 
exactly. Their pastor had been yery leniently dealt 
with, by his friends, they said ; and had flouted all 
indulgence. Six months would give him ample 
opportunity to And a new fleld of labor. The motion 
was then put to vote ; and not one ballot was found 
that dissented from the resolution. 

Thus the separation that existed between pastor 
and people, was made clearly manifest. 

As was eminently fitting ; for the supporters of 
Union Tabernacle were determined that Jesus should 
not rule over them, while the pastor belonged to the 
true Church of Christ ; the church of apostolic descent 
— to whose members is bequeathed the apostles' legacy: 
the robes of martyrdom. 

The meeting was dismissed after the people had 
sung the hymn beginning : 

Blest be the tie that binds 
Our hearts in Christian love. 


106 


A TEUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


CHAPTER VI. 

THE LAST APPEAL. 

Although the conflict in which Truth and False- 
hood oppose each other is a war of extermination, 
yet in that battle there seems to be in places, at times, 
a cessation of hostilities. There was a lull in Bellicose. 
Falsehood's legions, as if satisfled with their late 
victory, showed a disinclination to begin fresh onsets; 
and Truth^s warrior, wearied by the stress which had 
been upon him, forebore to renew his assaults. He 
had been accounted worthy of the armor which he 
wore; and a commandment had been given to minister- 
ing spirits to prepare him for high honors; to lead him 
by still waters for a season and to restore his soul. 

The battle was to be renewed with tenfold fury ; 
and shortly. An epoch was ended ; a mightier was 
at hand, and was being heralded by movements of 
preparation. Out of regions of darkness evil spirits 
were issuing ; and into the hearts of the dwellers in 
the American union they were entering. From those 
black recesses whence came the thought that liberty 
can be attained by acts of violence, demons were 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


107 


being sent to take full possession of men ; to set them 
against each other ; and to make them ready to drench 
the earth with each other’s blood. 

But the dweller in the kingdom of heaven was 
resting in quietness. Angels excelling in strength 
were imparting courage to his heart, and teaching 
him to fear not them which kill the body but are not 
able to kill the soul. 

All abroad there was clamor and confusion. Satan’s 
emissaries were seizing God’s gifts to use them in the 
service of their master; so that the hearts of men 
might with greater celerity be prepared for full loyalty 
to him. Transmitters able to carry with lightning 
speed the thoughts of men — and which should have 
scattered broadcast among the dwellers in the Ameri- 
can union the words pertaining to true liberty which 
had been spoken in Bellicose, to summon men to 
enter into the kingdom of heaven and find peace — 
were hurrying hither and thither, laden with the 
utterances of the pit of woe. And unseen by men 
and devils, but working with a power far mightier 
than their own, were fiaming spirits of God — sent to 
harden men’s hearts, and to open new doors in de- 
struction. So that the time of Satan’s discomfiture 
might be hastened. So that in Bellicose God’s name 
might be glorified. So that in Bellicose a lover of 


108 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


liberty might lay down his life triumphantly under 
the banner of Jesus, the true flag of freedom. So that 
in Bellicose the spirit of a just man might be caught 
up from the earth quickly, to be made perfect ; and 
to dwell forever with the Lord. 

The crisis in the affairs of the American union 
which the postmaster had refused to consider in his 
thoughts, was approaching in reality. Certain people 
who had previously acknowledged the sovereignty of 
the American union, were complaining that condi- 
tions which they were upholding under the name of 
liberty, were not conditions of liberty. 

Not that the malcontents were really and truly 
beginning to hunger after liberty ; they were wholly 
opposed to it. They wished to establish a dominion 
of certain ideas which were pleasant to themselves. 
That was what they meant when they spoke of 
desiring liberty; and when they said that the 
American union did not grant liberty to them. 

The forefathers of the malcontents had inaugurated 
the American union as an establishment of liberty ; 
and the malcontents themselves had proclaimed it as 
such. But notwithstanding the fact that they were 
beginning to throw discredit on the discerning 
powers of their forefathers, and on their own previous 
declarations, they did not for a moment imagine 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


109 


that a doubt could be cast upon their forefathers’ 
belief and their own belief as to the way to obtain 
liberty. They believed as firmly as evei* that liberty 
can be attained by coercion and violence ; and they 
were making ready to carry their belief into the field 
of practical action. 

Although this tumult was beginning to raise a 
sympathetic commotion in Bellicose, it failed to 
disturb the repose which had fallen on the pastor. 
During the six months between the date of his 
dismissal, and the day appointed for that dismissal to 
take effect, his utterances were deemed wholly unob- 
jectionable by the supporters of Union Tabernacle. 
And their behavior during that time showed evidences 
of nothing but kindly feeling. The excitement into 
which they were thrown by the storm which was 
gathering around them, and the sympathy which 
they felt for the fervid outbursts of loyalty which 
were becoming more and more frequent among 
upholders of the American union, they carefully 
refrained from showing in the neighborhood of the 
pastor. 

Yet there, was an occurrence near the close of the 
pastor’s term of office which was in sharp contrast to 
the pacific interim; and which deserves to be recorded. 

Thinking that it would be good for their prosperity 


110 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


to have a new preacher ready to fill the pastor’s place 
as soon as he should retire, the supporters of Union 
Tabernacle entered into communication with several 
candidates, with that end in view. Finding a man 
who gave promise of pleasing them, they requested 
the pastor to yield up his pulpit for a Sunday and 
give the applicant an opportunity for trial. 

The newcomer proved to be all that the most 
ardent patriot could desire. He made tiie walls of 
Union Tabernacle ring again with his appeals to loyal 
upholders of the American union. Sentiment after 
sentiment ; declaration after declaration, loaded with 
patriotism, he shot out of stentorian lungs in honor 
of the American union. Like loyal salutes they 
echoed and thrilled through the hearts of the men 
and women before him ; and the supporters of Union 
Tabernacle knew that at last they had found a man 
after their own hearts : diligent in patriotism, fervent 
in belligerency, serving their lord. 

No longer would the band of patriots which held 
possession of Union Tabernacle be an army divided 
against itself. AVith loyalty in rank and file it would 
be known as one of the country’s sure defences. And 
that the new auspices might open with all honor, 
the colors of the American union were nailed fast 
behind the pulpit ; there to remain. 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


Ill 


Once more the hearts of the supporters of Union 
Tabernacle were filled with a determination to array 
their belief before the pastor^s eyes. Once more the 
people were on fire to show the pastor evidences that 
his apostasy had done nothing to break the bonds of 
their unity ; nothing to separate them from the faith 
that had been delivered to their fathers. The one 
opportunity to do so was at hand; for the coming Sun- 
day would be the last one of the pastor^sterm of service. 
During the week, therefore, preparations were made; 
and Sunday morning saw the supporters of Union 
Tabernacle feverishly expectant, and wending their 
way from all parts of Bellicose to that temple where they 
were wont to assemble themselves together: ‘^a peculiar 
people in the Lord,^^ as Mr. Kitto frequently said. 

As the pastor entered the pulpit and surveyed the 
congregation, he saw that the first row of pews before 
him — ranging from one side of the house to the other 
— was occupied by little girls belonging to the infant 
class of the Sunday-school. All of them were robed 
in white dresses ; and each child wore also a sash of 
parti-colored ribbon — red and blue. 

The organ finished its voluntary and immediately 
began a new strain. The children rose in their 
places ; and passing out of the pews, arranged them- 
selves, each with a Bible in her hand, beneath the 


m 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


pulpit. Then facing the congregation, they sang in 
the pleasant tones of their youthful voices, the hymn 
beginning : 

We won’t give up the Bible 
God’s precious Book of truth. 

The scene was surpassingly impressive to the con- 
gregation. ‘^It symbolizes,^’ Deacon Tristam whis- 
pered to his wife, sitting beside him — ^'the union of 
patriotism and religion ; and reminds me forcibly of 
the text : ^ Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings 
Thou hast perfected praise.’” 

The pastor remained seated until the demonstration 
was over ; then rising in his place he announced the 
opening hymn. This was sung by the congregation. 
Then a chapter of the Bible was read by the pastor ; 
who afterward offered a prayer. After that, the 
singing of another hymn took place. 

It was customary with the congregation to remain 
seated while singing the first and second hymns ; and 
to sing the last hymn, which always was sung after 
the sermon had been listened to — standing. But as 
the music of the second hymn dies away, to-day, and 
as the pastor — who is standing in his place to begin 
his address — is in the act of speaking, a trumpet- 
like sound issuing from the organ breaks in upon the 
regular course of proceeding. The congregation arises 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


113 


and confronts the pastor ; and suddenly, from organ, 
choir and people burst forth the strains of: ^^America.^^ 

How the people sing ! Old men and maidens ; 
young men, matrons and little children — are pouring 
forth with willing voices the words of the mighty 
song. And how the music of the organ swells above 
the voices — loud and grand. Pastor and people in 
their accustomed places ; with patriotism and harmony 
triumphant at last in Union Tabernacle. What more 
would the people have? How they sing! The majestic 
strains thrilling through their hearts exalt and fill 
them with emotions — vague and overpowering at first 
— then shaping into distinct desires to do deeds mighty 
and noble. Oh that they might be enabled to do 
something that would help the pastor to see the truth 
as they see it ! This is their prayer. 

How they are singing ! They are pouring out their 
very souls ! Is there not a power in music which can 
accomplish what speech can not ? Can it be possible 
that the verses which these people are singing — these 
verses which are giving satisfaction and joy to their 
hearts — have no power at all with the man who is 
standing before them I Oh, that he might see what 
they behold as they sing : 

Land where my fathers died ; 

Land of the pilgrim’s pride I 


114 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


They see a company of men and women, weak in 
numbers, but strong in the power which God gives 
to his servants — sailing over stormy seas, and landing 
on bleak, inhospitable shores. They see them fighting 
to subdue the unfriendly powers of nature ; fighting 
to drive away disease; fighting to overpower the savage 
denizens of the wilderness; fighting against all the open 
and insidious approaches of death. They see them 
prospering in spite of the assaults of their many adver- 
saries; and through all — giving thanks to God, whose 
servants they are. They see the seed of the righteous 
growing and thriving. They see them in new conflicts, 
and ever growing stronger. They see them taking the 
sword of the Lord and of Gideon, and fighting against 
enemies who seek to fasten upon them the yoke of 
oppression. They see them starving and burned by 
summer suns; ill-clad and pierced by winter winds; and 
through all, fighting for God and for the right — for 
their families and for their homes. They see them con- 
quering, and planting firmly the standard of liberty. 

Let music swell the breeze !— 

Aye, let it swell ! Let it fill all the house! Let it swell 
outward and be caught up by a nation mighty and free! 
Let a myriad voices pour it forth again, a joyous trib- 
ute to Freedom ! 

Let mortal tongues awake, 

Let all that breathe partake — 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


115 


Where is the tongue that can keep silence ! See the 
pastor where he stands — pale and motionless — shut in 
between the mighty walls of the temple of Liberty ! 
Before him is a mighty phalanx instinct with her 
spirit ; behind him, her flaming standard ! Can he 
escape from her sweet and protecting care, now? Will 
not he yield himself to her at last, after so long a 
rebellion against her loving spirit ? 

Our father’s God ! to Thee, 

Author of liberty ! 

To Thee we sing — 

^‘To Thy care, oh Father, do we commit this man; 
for verily Thou art the God that doest wonders. 
Break up his hard heart. Let the light of liberty 
shine in and through his dark soul.” Breathing out 
this prayer, the people sing the last words of their 
song ; having in their hearts feelings very different 
from those with which they arose to sing at the pastor 
their anthem of liberty. 

My friends ” said the pastor, when the people had 
taken their seats — I did not know what to say to 
you this morning. I had not prepared any sermon. 
It seemed as though everything that I could say to 
you I had! already said. But as you sang your grand 
anthem, thoughts came thick and fast. My heart grew 
light and sang for joy. Yes ! Though my lips moved 


116 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


not, I too was singing; and my soul is singing now of 
the land of the true and brave, where men walk in the 
glorious liberty of the sons of God. I sing not of that 
country which you praise : the land of the spiritually 
dead, where men are in chains and darkness ; a land 
where men crucify Christ and pray God to speed the 
right; a land where men deal violently with men, 
and are as Cain who was of the wicked one, and slew 
his brother — that is. not a land of liberty. But of 
thee, oh land of life and good days ; of thee, oh land 
of rest and peace; of thee, oh land where there is 
freedom from sin; of thee, oh land whose inhabitants 
walk in the light of the Sun of Eighteousness ; of 
thee, oh kingdom of heaven that suffereth violence ; 
of thee, beloved country, where men are overpowered 
only by the might of God’s holy spirit — 

My country ’tis of thee, 

Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing. 

This is the land to which I belong. This 
Land where my fathers died ; 

Land of the pilgrim’s pride. 

^'My fathers were not as your fathers, oh friends. 
My fathers did not seize a part of the earth and 
drive other men away with violence and bloodshed. 
No! They were truly and honestly, pilgrims on the 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


117 


earth. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary 
way and found no city to dwell in. Hungry and 
thirsty their souls fainted in them. Then they cried 
unto the Lord in their trouble and He heard them. 
They died unto the ways of the world ; and behold 
they are alive forevermore ! 

As the pastor spoke these words, how distinctly he 
saw it in his mind — the wide gulf that lay between 
his hearers and himself because of their different 
ancestry. He was born of Truth and knew his lineage; 
but they — believing that through natural parentage 
is the real descent of man — knew no more whence 
they had come than did those people to whom Christ 
said : ‘^Ye are of your father the devil.” 

“Land of the noble free,” 
said the pastor — 

‘ ‘Thy name I love — 

Land of the noble army of martyrs — I love thee 
with an everlasting love. If I forget thee oh Jerusalem, 
may my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not 
remember thee let my tongue cleave to the roof of 
my mouth ! 

I love thy rocks and rills — 

^‘The Eock of my salvation ; the everlasting hills 
from whence cometh my help ; and thy streams of 
righteousness, by whoso side the sons of liberty walk 


118 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


with God. He that hath mercy on them leadeth them ; 
even by the streams of water He guideth them. 
Therefore all ye who desire freedom — ho, every one 
that thirsteth — come ye to the waters. Whosoever 
will, let him take the water of life freely. 

'‘Land of liberty — kingdom of heaven— how fair 
and how pleasant art thou, oh love for delights ! 
Awake, 0 north wind ; and come, thou south ; blow 
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. 
Let music swell the breeze, 

And ring from all the trees 
Sweet Freedom’s song I 

"The trees of the Lord are full of sap; for there 
He hath commanded His blessing ; that they might 
be called trees of righteousness — the planting of the 
Lord. Blessed art thou, oh son of liberty ; thou who 
art not entangled by the counsel of the ungodly. 
Yea it is written : ' Blessed are the meek,^ But the 
ungodly are like the chaff which the wind driveth 
away. They think that they can possess the earth by 
violence. They speak great words against the Most 
High, who says that the meek shall inherit the earth. 
They think to change His times and laws — that they 
can do evil, and that good will unfold from their acts. 
They think that God can be mocked ; that men can 
reap what they do not sow. They scout the laws of 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


119 


Christ, and say that they believe in the perseverance 
of the saints. They slay their enemies and proclaim 
that they are working for the things that pertain to 
peace on earth and good will among men. 

Let mortal tongues awake — 

Let all that breathe partake I 

Awake, awake — put on thy strength oh Zion! 
So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for He is 
the Lord; and worship thou Him. All ye inhabitants 
of the world and ye dwellers on the earth, see ye 
when He lifteth up an ensign on the mountains. He 
shall come down like rain upon the mown grass ; as 
showers that water the earth. In His days shall the 
righteous flourish ; and abundance of peace so long as 
the moon endure th. Yea though the sons of liberty 
are few and weak on the earth now, yet fear not, little 
flock — it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you 
the kingdom. Though there is to-day but an handful 
of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains, 
the fruit thereof shall yet shake like Lebanon. 

^^Go through — go through the gates ; prepare ye the 
way of the people. Oast up — cast up the highway. 
Lift up a standard for the people. Proclaim liberty 
throughout all the land — unto all the inhabitants 
thereof. For all the ends of the earth shall see the 
salvation of our God.” 


120 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


said the supporters of Union Tabernacle — 
as the pastor began to translate the sentiments of 
their patriotic anthem, essaying once more to raise 
their minds to the level of eternal verities — ^^he is at 
it again ; setting the whimsical up for the real.” 

But shortly they began to be astonished. The light 
which he was throwing upon familiar texts of the 
Bible made them stand out with a newness that was 
notable and startling. Could it be possible — they 
began to ask themselves — that the second advent of 
Christ, which they had been taught to think of, only 
with fear and trembling — was identical with the dawn 
of liberty? Could it be possible that the day of 
judgment would bring with it the very thing that 
the inhabitants of the earth were yearning for ? At 
the instant it seemed as though the understanding of 
the supporters of Union Tabernacle was about to open; 
and that they would learn why Christ is called the 
‘‘Desire of all nations” — that they would learn why it is 
that the judgments of the Lord are more to be wished for 
than gold — why they are sweeter than honey and the 
honey-comb. For a moment it seemed as though the 
supporters of Union Tabernacle had grown able to 
see Truth. 

Ah, had such been the case indeed ! Had the people 
who were listening to the pastor been fully resolved 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


121 


to be liberated from the thralldom of Satan ; and bad 
they gone forth born into the kingdom of heaven — 
born into a determination to manifest Christas gospel 
of peace; the miseries, the horrors, the bloodshedding 
toward which men were speeding might have been 
escaped. On the eve of that outbreak which up- 
holders of the American union call the war of the 
rebellion against their government, but which is 
called in the spiritual tongue by a name far different, 
a nation might have been born in a day into that 
liberty wherewith Christ makes men free. Accursed 
of God and renounced by men, the American union 
would have fallen back into that nether darkness out 
of which it arose to defy the Almighty. But it was 
not to be. The time had not arrived for the con- 
version of this world to Christ. The dispensation 
had not closed, during which the gospel of Christ is 
being preached only for a witness. 

The pastor spoke again: ‘^Your father^s god — to 
whom you sing — can never make a land bright with 
Freedom’s holy light ; for he is the prince of darkness. 
Satan is the god to whom you appeal when you 
invoke the god of your fathers. Satan — who fed 
your fathers, and who is feeding your fathers’ children 
on lies. 'In union is strength,’ he teaches ; and you 
believe him. You trust in his word, although the 


122 


A TRUE SON OP LIBERTY. 


Bible in which you profess to believe says to you : 
^Trust ye in the Lord forever for in the Lord Jehovah 
is everlasting strength.’ 

''Then turn ye— turn ye— why will ye die! All 
the devices of the devil must come to naught. 
Though his children bind themselves together ; 
though they join hand in hand, cement heart to 
heart, and declare that they shall stand because of their 
union ; though they hail the prince of darkness as the 
Light of the world ; though they fall down and 
worship the devil ; though they declare that the words 
of their god are infallible, and preach them as a 
gospel of righteousness and power ; though they hail 
the devil as the God of liberty, the only God, the 
God mighty to save— yet still does power and salva- 
tion belong to that God who is the Father of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true God. He is the 
only God. He is the Author of liberty. Give your 
hearts to Him. In the beginning He was ; and in the 
end He shall be — when His enemies have been put 
down ; and when every union which opposes his sway 
shall have been destroyed. 

" Come then with me and I will do you good. Let 
us seek a home ; let us build up a family ; let us 
establish a nation — where foundations are everlast- 
ing — where filial obedience is given to God — and 


THE LAST APPEAL. 


123 


where liberty dwells. The kingdom of heaven is the 
only home that it is our duty to battle for. The little 
company of souls who hear the Word of God and obey 
Christas laws is the only family we are commanded to 
be loyal to. Let us break all the bonds and ties of 
Satan ! Let us throw off all his entanglements ! 
Let us destroy the American union ” 

See ! They are on their feet now, with wild 
denunciations upon their lips. They cannot abide 
realities — these men and women who a few moments 
ago seemed almost able to face Truth. They are 
ordinary human beings after all — proud-hearted, and 
hating ways and thoughts that are above their ways 
and thoughts as high as the heavens are above the 
earth. See their angry gestures ! They threaten the 
pastor. They cry out loudly at him and to each 
other. But they do not silence him. Hark ! He 
speaks again: Loyalty to the American union is 

treason to Christ ! ” 

Louder than his voice — louder than the voices of 
the people — is the cry of the hearts of the supporters 
of Union Tabernacle ; listen to it ! 

This man must be silenced ! His words madden 
us ! We hate Truth ! We love a lie ! Let us out — 
let us out from this man^s presence, to nurse the dark- 
ness that is in our souls until it has driven out every 


124 


A TKUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


ray of light ! Let us away from here to make our- 
selves ready to go such lengths upon the road that we 
have started on, that to return will be impossible!” 

So ended the pastor^s last attempt to work out a 
separation of Church and State in Bellicose. 

His words madden us I ” How it is that the self- 
same words can say wholly different things to 
different people, is a wondrous mystery. The same 
words which say to those who are on Christas right 
hand : ‘^Corne ye blessed” ! — say to those who are on 
His left : ^^Depart ye cursed”! The same words that 
impelled the disciples of Jesus to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, and find righteousness and peace 
— drove other men to do the foulest deed that has 
been done during all time 


ONE MORE day's WORK FOR JESUS. 


125 


CHAPTER VII. 

ONE MORE day's WORK FOR JESUS. 

As THE disaffection deepened among the malcon- 
tents, and as the declaration was more and more 
frequently made by the people of Bellicose that the 
American union must and should be preserved, the 
pastor called attention more and more often to the fact 
that the upholders of the American union had always 
praised and glorified their own forefathers for doing 
what the malcontents were claiming the privilege of 
doing — establishing a dominion of ideas pleasing to 
themselves. He also called the attention of the people 
of Bellicose to the fact that their forefathers had made 
provision for emergencies like that which was arising; 
that they had published an acknowledgment of the 
right of men to withdraw from the American union 
when displeased with it — in their declaration that 
governments which are instituted among men, derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed. 

But the pastor's timely and honest reminder did 
not serve at all to repair the breach which was between 


126 


A TRUE SOif OF LIBERTY. 


him and the people of Bellicose. It angered them 
against him still more. They did not want to hear 
facts. They wanted to hear an echo of what was in 
their own hearts. They could not comprehend how 
a man could he lifted above the questions which 
agitated their hearts, and be beyond the influences 
of partisanship. Their minds being centered on 
themselves, they could not understand a man whose 
heart was fixed on Truth. In their belief everybody 
must be either for them or against them. The pastor 
was not a unionist ; so of course he was a rebel. 

Kebel — then, was the name applied to the pastor 
by the makers of public opinion in Bellicose. They 
denounced him openly in public places ; and his 
name, which — had they known him as they ought — 
they never would have spoken save in tones of love, 
they taught men to couple with the most opprobrious 
epithet they could lay tongue to. Who so ungrateful, 
so black-hearted, so full of the spirit of all evil — in 
the minds of the people of Bellicose — as men whom 
they called rebels ! There was a rebel in their own 
community; the worst rebel of all — for he was sinning 
against the highest light. Privileged to reap the 
benefit of the same opportunities, associations and 
influences which made all his neighbors loyal and 
stanch upholders of the American union — he turned 


OITE MORE day’s WORK FOR JESUS. 127 


his back on patriotism ; he outraged loyalty ; he 
struck hands with his country’s betrayers. Judas, 
spurning the sweet influences which ought to have 
made him a saint — was not worse than this man ! 

Thus it came to pass that the pastor — the man 
whose every word ought to have been listened to 
with deepest reverence — the man to whom children 
ought to have been brought, that he might bless them 
with his teachings — was never talked about in any 
part of Bellicose, in any circle — from high to low — 
except as an abandoned character. And in the 
lowest circles of the low — where the word manhood 
had no more meaning than any other foreign word — 
suggestions were often made as to the sort of treat- 
ment which traitors and incendiaries ought to receive 
at the hands of honest and outraged men. 

What had the pastor done to make men hate him 
BO ? Let us name it in the simplest form in which it 
can be said. Believing that Jesus Christ was a perfect 
man, and that by His life the thoughts and ways of 
all other men ought to be judged — he had tested by 
that perfect life beliefs and doings which men call right 
and praiseworthy. He had announced the result 
courageously. He had detected the real motto of the 
American union : Let us make Jesus Christ a liar 
— and he had exposed it to men who were contin- 


128 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


ually exhorting each other to Stand up, stand up 
for Jesus ! ” This he had done, nothing worse ; 
and in doing it he had earned for himself a reputa- 
tion compared with which the characters of the vilest 
of the vile seemed immaculate in the eyes of Bellicose. 

Soon came a day when the malcontents went one 
step further in imitating acts which the forefathers 
of the upholders of the American union had com- 
mitted — acts which the said upholders had always 
called glorious. They withdrew their support from, 
and declared their independence of, a sovereignty to 
which they had been loyal. 

All that consistency permitted the upholders of the 
American union to do in regard to this rupture, was 
to deplore the effects of an example which they had 
called good — but found bad ; and to accept the result 
as a natural thing. But they did not act so at all. 
They did not seem to think once of leaving the 
separatists unmolested, although those people dis- 
tinctly said that all they wanted was to be left alone. 
Like wildfire, a demand for their subjugation ran 
through the American union ; and in response, men 
were dispatched to the seceding section — there to 
follow the example that had been set a hundred years 
before by men whom the upholders of the American 
union had always styled the enemies of freedom. 


ONE MORE day’s WORK FOR JESUS. 129 

Goaded by what seemed to them acts of usurpa- 
tion on the part of their oppressors, the separatists 
in their turn followed the example that had been set 
a hundred years before by men whom the upholders 
of the American union had always glorified as de- 
fenders of liberty. They resisted with violence the 
mandates of those who claimed right of dominion 
over them ; and seized property that was in the pos- 
session of their enemies. 

Did these overt acts open the eyes of the upholders 
of the American union to the dishonor which they 
were doing to the memory of their forefathers, by 
attempting the subjugation of men who were trying 
to secure something which the founders of the Amer- 
ican union had declared an undeniable right of man? 
Did the upholders of the American union hasten to 
bury out of sight that banner which their voices had 
always called a flag of freedom, but which their acts 
were making a standard of oppression ? Not at all. 
Debased as they were, degraded as was that banner 
which floated over men who were false — not only to 
God, but also to their own oft-declared principles — 
these men still loved their ways; they still glorified their 
flag, and declared that it should float forever and be 
honored by all. Through the American union an 
order was borne that over every house that flag must 


130 


A TRUE SOI?’ OF LIBERTY. 


wave. In every community bands of men marched 
from house to house to tell citizens to display the 
colors of the American union. 

Where was tyranny ever more relentless, or cowardice 
more brutal, than they were in those days in the 
land of the free and the home of the brave ! ” What 
cared the mobs of self-styled patriots for patriotism ! 
What respect had they for the convictions of men who 
chose to abide by a belief which the upholders of the 
American union had loudly professed allegiance to 
and meanly sneaked away from! Trampling honesty 
and sincerity under foot, they went from doubtful 
house to doubtful house compelling a show of loyalty 
to the American union. And speedily that banner 
which the lover of consistency cannot look upon 
without a feeling of aversion, was flaunting every- 
where. Willing or unwilling, every citizen saw it 
displayed on the house of which he was called master; 
for where opposition was shown, the demand for its 
exhibition was accompanied by threats which showed 
a purpose as malignant as was afterward shown in 
that order which became a watchword throughout 
the American union : ‘‘If any man attempts to haul 
down the American flag, shoot him on the spot !” 

There was one house in Bellicose where no banner 
was displayed — the house which the pastor occupied. 


ONE MORE DAY^S WORK FOR JESUS. 131 

But it would not be distinguished in that way long — 
people said. Only until word had been passed around 
through the town that the flag which Bellicose loved, 
was to be hoisted there. Only until the people who 
desired to see a rebel forced to acknowledge the 
sovereignty of the American union, had been gathered 
together. Only until a band of players on musical 
instruments had been summoned to hail with a burst 
of patriotic melody the appearance of the American 
flag flying in triumph on the house of the one rebel 
of Bellicose. 

It was a lovely day. Morning and Spring were 
putting forth, by herald and harbinger, promises of 
coming refulgence and muniflcence. Under azure 
skies and over emerald and flower-spangled flelds that 
lay bathed in warm and mellow sunshine — perfumed 
zephyrs were being wafted. Among woodland boughs, 
bright plumage was glancing; and from leafy heights, 
notes of liquid and dulcet melody were falling. Faith 
and responsive love, benediction and praise, fruition 
and joy, were in earth, air and sky. 

To the pastor the scene brought sweet and vivid 
thoughts of the opening of an eternal summer — of the 
dawning of that unending day when no man shall say 
to his neighbor : Know thou the Lord ; but all 
shall know Him from the least to the greatest. Its 


132 


A TRUE SOH OP LIBERTY. 


coming seemed close at hand ; at his very door. As 
if the brightness and beauty which were charming 
his senses would presently merge into manifestations 
that would enrapture his soul. It seemed as if the 
vision which he was looking upon were about to unfold 
a new meaning. He was conscious of being laid hold 
of by a desire to be made ready for a summons that 
he seemed about to hear. He felt impelled to make 
effort to break away from some hinderance which 
prevented him from taking a departure, to which all 
the preparation of his life had been a prelude. sleep,” 
he said, “but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my 
beloved that koocketh, saying: ^open to me my love.^ ” 

Rouse thee, oh pastor ! There is a time for every- 
thing. There is a time to smile and a time to weep ; 
a time to be joyful in the Lord, and a time to be slain 
for the cause of Christ. 

A sound of distant music salutes the ear. Looking 
through his open window the pastor sees many people 
moving across the fields, and coming toward the road 
on which his house stands. As they draw near, he 
sees that they are hurrying rather than marching in 
processional order ; while a threading in and out among 
them of excited, gesticulating men, shows plainly that 
they are in pursuit of some business which their leaders 
would have them at quickly. 


ONE MORE day’s WORK FOR JESUS. 


133 


On they come, waving many flags and drawing 
rapidly nearer and nearer. Now they are out on the 
road, and turned in the direction of the pastor’s house; 
and now the pastor can distinguish the strains of a 
popular patriotic melody. Now the people are at 
the pastor’s house. Now they are surging through 
his gateway. Now they are trampling his lawn — 
looking up at his house — gesticulating — waving 
flags and shouting. Now the musical instruments 
are heard again, as a gesture from one who appears 
to be somewhat in command, hushes in a slight degree 
the clamor and confusion. Hark ! The band plays 
again the strains which a few moments ago fell on 
the pastor’s ear from a distance. Listen ! The peo- 
ple raise their voices and sing in chorus : 

The union of lakes— the union of lands — 

The union of States none can sever. 

The union of hearts — the union of hands — 

And the Flag of our Union forever ! 

Hear the refrain ! Grandly it is swelled out by 
many voices : 

“Forever!” And again: “Forever!” And once 
more, in tones of thunder : “ Forever ! ’ 

The union of hearts — the union of hands — 

And the Flag of our Union forever ! 

“ Three cheers for the Old Flag, boys !” is shouted. 
Then: “Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah!” Seethe 


134 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


Stars and Stripes, how they are lifted on high ! See 
the flag, their dear old flag, on the breezes waving ! 
Now a voice yells : ^^Show your colors !” And other 
voices : Hoist a flag on that house ! Bring out the 
rebel ! Make him show the Stars and Stripes !” 

In vain the people harangue the house before 
them. No sign of life is there. Quickly a deputa- 
tion of two or three men enter, to find the pastor and 
tell him the purpose for which the crowd is gathered 
on his lawn. He steps through the low window and 
out upon a little balcony. He looks calmly down 
at the faces that are looking up to him. 

“What do you want of me, my friends?” — he 
inquires. 

Many voices reply: “We want you to hoist the 
Union flag ! Show your colors ! We want to see our 
flag on your house ! Three cheers for the Old Flag, 
boys ! ” And again hurrahs are wildly shouted ; and 
flags are violently waved. “ Be quick — you old rebel I” 
yells a voice on the skirts of the crowd. “ Bring out 
the Stars and Stripes and run them up ! ” 

The pastor speaks again : I cannot do as you 

wish,” he says. “I do not own such a thing as an 
American flag. I have often spoken to you of my 
hatred of the ideas of which it is the emblem. I 
would not willingly stay in any house that harbors it. 


ON^E MORE day’s 'WORK FOR JESUS. 


135 


The more determined men are to rally around it^ and 
to follow its lead along the road which leads to de- 
struction — the more determined must I be to abhor 
it. It commemorates warfare. It urges men to 
do violence. It summons and leads men to shed the 
blood of their fellow men. It inspires men to insult, 
to assault, to trample under foot and outrage the 
peaceful banner of Christ. Think, my friends, think 
what that flag which you glory in, really is. 

I speak to you all ; not only to you who profess 
to be followers of Christ ; but to you all. Every man 
ought to live for the glory of God. It is every man’s 
duty to be obedient to the commandments which 
Christ obeyed. Think of the patience with which 
God has waited for the nations to pledge their loyalty 
to Him. Think of the Heavenly Father, waiting — 
waiting for the peoples of the earth to seek the blessed 
path of peace which Christ opened nearly two thou- 
sand years ago. See men of every nation sending out 
their hearts to you, only to be fllled with desires that 
ought not to enter into the heart of man. See all the 
peoples of the earth being deceived by your word sand 
acts into believing that the flag which you raise on 
high is an emblem of liberty ; that the land which 
you love is a land of freedom. Look at yourselves 
in shame, you who are monuments of God’s long- 


136 


A TRUE SON" OF LIBERTY. 


suffering mercy, you who ought to be lifting up to the 
nations the true emblem of liberty — the banner of the 
cross — the standard of peace on earth — the symbol of 
crucified lives. Look at yourselves crucifying Christ 
afresh, you who ought to be leading men into the 
kingdom of heaven — the only land of freedom. Look 
at yourselves, seizing all the means for the dissemina- 
tion of intelligence which this wondrous age has pro- 
duced ; and using them to put Jesus Christ to open 
shame before the whole world ; to teach men that He 
is a liar ; that Truth is not in Him. Has not God 
waited long enough for the nations to turn to Him 
for liberty ? Is it not late in the day of his long- 
suffering for men to lift up a banner of treason 
against Him — as you are doing when you raise the 
flag of the American union ? ” 

With the exception of a cat-call or two, there had 
been no interruption of the speaker’s words up to 
this point. The pastor had a power over men when 
he addressed them, which, inflamed against him 
though they might be, it seemed hard for them to 
overcome. The calmness of his poise, the earnest- 
ness of his speech and the dignity of his manner, 
always held his hearers silent for a while — no matter 
how antagonistic his utterances might be to their 
cherished beliefs. So it was at this time. Up to the 


ONE MORE day's WORK FOR JESUS. 137 

moment he used the word treason the people listened. 
But — treason ! The word seemed to break the spell. 
Treason was what they had come out to subdue. 

Down with the traitor ! " shouted voices in the 
crowd — ^^up with the Stars and Stripes !’' 

There was a sudden rush to the door of the house. 
Half a dozen men bearing a flag dashed through, and 
up the stairway — into the pastor's study and out on 
the balcony. At a corner of the railing they set their 
flag-pole — nailing it fast with rapid and heavy blows; 
and gave the banner to the breeze. Out it floated ; 
and out from the throats of the people rang cheer on 
cheer to greet it. 

Underneath the flag the pastor stood, looking down 
on the excited crowd beneath him. Children were 
there — some of them no larger than those whom Jesus 
looked upon when He said : ^‘of such is the kingdom 
of heaven;" little children — with whose innocence 
parents had only begun to tamper; and whose feet 
were not fully set upon the road that leads down to 
hell. Other children were there — somewhat larger — 
who had developed a relish for the way of the devil ; 
and in whose faces the pastor could see Satanic 
hatred spreading over, yet not wholly obliterating, the 
marks of childish innocence. And others also, who 
had progressed further — who knew enough to be able 


138 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


to declaim about the rights of man ; to recite the max- 
ims of patriotism ; to prate about the location of liberty; 
to do honor to the flag of the American union and to the 
fathers and mothers which the devil had given them. 

The pastor spoke again ; taking advantage as well 
as he could, of each momentary lull and subsidence 
in the noise and tumult of the crowd below him : 

You have set your flag on my house, notwithstand- 
ing what I have said to you ; but I shall not follow 
your example, and resort to violence. If you are able 
to get any satisfaction from the sight of the flag of 
the American union flying over the head of a man 
who hates it, and who cannot be made loyal to it, 
you are welcome to that ” 

A torrent of denunciations, groans and hurrahs 
drowned his voice. He stood silent. A smile, faint 
and sad, passed over his features as there flashed across 
his mind maxim after maxim speaking of this world 
as a befriender of the virtues; and as he compared their 
declarations with the scene that was being enacted be- 
fore him. The effect of a good example — where was it? 
The deference which the world shows to uprightness — 
the regard which it has for courage and earnest endeavor 
— its esteem for true manhood and devotion to duty — 
its appreciation of honesty, sincerity and sterling worth 
— where were they all ? Manifest, under his very eyes. 


OKE MORE day’s WORK FOR JESUS. 139 


A freshening breeze caught the flag and floated it 
far out over the heads of the people. Its shadow 
falling on the pastor, changed the current of his 
thoughts. What had he to do with the judgments of 
this world ! They were nothing to him. He had 
not been misled. He had never been deceived as to 
the nature of his surroundings. He had always 
known that he was in a world where men hate and 
kill not only their enemies, but also their best friends. 
His eyes had always been open to the Satanic possi- 
bilities that are in human beings. He had never 
sought the world’s favor. He had sought and found 
favor with Him who said : ** Whosoever shall confess 
me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess 
before the angels of God.” He put on strength anew. 
He lifted his hand and pointed at the flag of the 
American union. ^'Behold,” he cried, ''the idol of 
your hearts ! Behold the emblem of a treason double- 
dyed ! May its accursed ” 

The sentence was never finished. A heavy stone 
thrown by some hand in the crowd, struck the aggress- 
ive Christian in his face ; and he fell backward, 
senseless and bleeding — into the arms of his daughter. 

Deacon Tristam was fond of his family. He loved 
the companionship of his wife and children. At 
night he rarely left his home. After supper, it was 


140 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


his custom to take his youngest child in his arms 
and put it asleep by rocking it, and singing hymns. 
Sometimes he sang that hymn beginning : 

Hush my dear lie still and slumber !— 

One verse of it he always sang in a voice that showed 
strong feeling — the verse in which these lines are : 

to read the shameful story 

How the Jews abused their King ; 

How they served the Lord of glory. 

Makes me angry while I sing. 

^^Ah !” — he would often say — ^‘how wicked 
those men were, my children. I hope that as you 
grow older, you will learn the enormity of their sin 
and think of those bad men in the way that your 
parents and all other good Christians do.’* 

Why do you think they were so very bad, Deacon ? 
They returned the salutations of those who met them 
with pleasant greetings— treating them as they them- 
selves wished to be treated — doing as they would be 
done by. They loved their own people. Very 
probably many of them were strongly attached to 
their firesides; and were husbands and fathers of a 
pattern whose excellence even you yourself. Deacon, 
do not surpass. They loved their own kind devotedly. 
They clung to each other, and bound themselves 
together to uphold the beliefs that had been handed 


ONE MORE day’s WORK FOR JESUS. 


141 


down to them by their fathers. And for haters of 
their union they had no mercy. 

There is no real difference in painted sepulchres. 
Deacon. The color of some may be white ; and the 
colors of others may be red, white and blue; but 
they are all filled with dead men’s bones. 


142 


A TEUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


CHAPTEE VIII. 

A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 

Alas for the pastor^s daughter ! She loved a tran- 
quil and social life. She believed that people who 
are in Kome ought to do as Eomans do. She was a 
thorough-going pursuer of happiness*. To get all the 
happiness and to give all the happiness that she 
possibly could get and give — this was to her, religion. 
She believed that her father was so wrapped up in what 
Christ said about the treatment of enemies, that he 
wholly ignored the commandment about conduct 
toward neighbors. ‘^Does a man love his neighbor 
as himself — she inquired of her religious convictions 
— when he hurts that neighbor's feelings by attack- 
ing a belief which the neighbor loves 

Her placid mind could not possibly reconcile with 
religious duty, denunciatory utterances — words cal- 
culated to arouse antagonisms, to inflame men to 
anger and to precipitate trouble. In the name of 
charity, her religion had taught her to deal very 
kindly with the beliefs of her neighbors. She had 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


143 


learned that it is right to suppress and strangle every 
harsh and angry feeling; and so, in order to avoid 
temptation — she laid the ax at the root of the tree, 
and shut the door of her mild and gentle heart 
against all disturbing realities. Deep as was the love 
which she felt for her father, her love for her religion 
was deeper still. 

Although her mind frequently acted on her father 
in a way that awakened in his mind suggestive 
thoughts which prepared him for inspiration and 
renewed endeavor, she herself could not inspire him. 
Her powers acted on his in a manner similar to that 
in which inferior beings direct higher beings toward 
knowledge ; in a manner similar to that in which the 
doings of the human race cause angels to glorify God. 
Yet remarkable as the statement may seem, it is 
nevertheless a fact that wholly different from each 
other as were the pastor and his daughter — they had 
both built up their characters by exactly the same 
process. Each had gotten something by contact with 
the world ; and both had laid hold of that something 
with such power as to make it part of their very selves. 

Although the impulses which the daughter prepared 
her father to receive were impulses which her heart 
disapproved ; although the acts which those impulses 
gave birth to, were acts which she deeply deplored ; 


144 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


filial love kept her from saying so to one to whom 
she owed honor as well as obedience. But the added 
restraint of her religion was needed at times to keep 
the daughter silent when the pastures course seemed 
as foolish as deplorable. What good will it do — 
was always her final thought — ‘^to withstand a man 
so set in his way ! Neither he nor I will be made 
happier by my speaking.” Thus her religion tri- 
umphed; thus she clung to it. love it” — she 
whispered to herself — ^^as devotedly as my father 
loves his belief ; even if I do not publish my devotion.” 

At the time of the pastor’s expulsion from the 
pulpit of Union Tabernacle, the daughter had, in the 
secrecy of her heart, accused her father of ruining 
himself and injuring his own flesh and blood for the 
sake of a mere idea ; a delusive will-o’-the-wisp. Of 
Truth as a living Spirit — that can be befriended ; that 
can be loved ; that can make returns for love ; that 
can suffer ; that can be slain ; that can rise again 
— her heart knew nothing. How a man could alienate 
his friends and separate himself from his own kindred 
for the sake of an indefinite thing which no one ever 
succeeded in locating, she could not conceive. So ran 
her thoughts. Loyalty she could understand — and 
also love ; but they ought to be given to human beings. 
To her kindred and to her friends she was determined 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


145 


to cling. Through evil report, and through peril she 
would serve them faithfully and unhesitatingly. ^'The 
world has far too much unhappiness in it already” 
— she said — would count it a sin to add anything to 
its misery. I could never enshrine an intangible fancy 
in my heart, and east out therefrom affection for living 
people who ask for my love and who are able to respond 
to it. No ! Peace on earth and happiness among 
men can only come through love of human beings ; 
never through love of ideas. The devotion of men to 
ideas which they call truth always has, and always will 
stir up discord and strife ; and the reason is plain — 
ideas differ. If advance in knowledge is claimed, and 
assertion made that truth can be seen where error 
was before — contradiction arises immediately. Men 
say that truth is elsewhere. Discord follows ; and 
wrangling. Or, if in some other field, progress is 
claimed, and men assert that truth demands that they 
and their fellows ought to begin to act in some new 
fashion — opposition arises at once, also in the name of 
truth ; and warfare is begun between those factions.” 
The pastor^s daughter lived in that state of mental 
confusion which they are in to whom fact and axiom, 
moral utterance and scientific dogma, theological 
enunciation and divine revelation, are known indis- 
criminately and collectively by the name : 'Hruth.” 


146 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


It might be said that the daughter was not very 
blameworthy in the feeling which she had in her 
heart about her father^s conduct. It might be said 
that she sometimes forgot — most naturally too — just 
what her father believed ; that she listened dutifully 
and respectfully to his words when he spoke; but that, 
as he was not always talking — and as others had strong 
opinions which they too talked about — her errors 
were due, perhaps largely, to mere lapse of memory ; 
to the forgetting of the precise points of her father’s 
doctrine. Yet underneath this action of mind and 
governing it, was a will; by which she chose the sphere 
that she desired to live in. Her loves and her longings 
had built for her a congenial place of abode; and 
although it almost seemed at times as if her father’s 
words had power to draw her therefrom, she never 
permitted herself to be wholly lifted out of her 
chosen sphere of occupation. Through its medium 
all words and thoughts must pass in order to reach her. 

The daughter had made her own personal choice. 
Hers was a quiet but indomitable persistence ; which, 
although it might seem at times to be swerved by the 
words of eternal life, returned unerringly to the course 
that her heart had chosen. To her way of thinking, 
the Christian graces were the qualities which establish 
men and women in the good graces of other people. 


A STRAl^GE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


147 


111 them she was determined to live; in them she 
desired to die. Neither persuasion nor power could 
separate her from her religious convictions. 

Although she thought that she ought to be accepted 
at the value she placed on herself, she never ceased 
from criticising her father’s conduct. It was her 
unchanging purpose to pull the pastor down to the 
level of the worldly interests of his family. Yet she 
did not proselyte boisterously ; she upheld her religion 
quietly, even as they do who love the approbation of 
their fellows. She did not force her ideas before the 
notice of anybody. The utmost that she did in mis- 
sionary work, was in taking advantage of opportuni- 
ties that offered from time to time, to quote instances 
in her father’s hearing, which proved conclusively to 
her own mind — that, regarding religious convictions, 
although speech is sometimes silver, silence is very fre- 
quently golden. And she waited for him to draw his 
own inferences ; hoping always that he would stumble 
over some principle that he had laid down ; and see 
the necessity of abandoning his course. What was 
she doing but lying in wait for the pastor to entangle 
himself in his talk ! 

She did not know her father ; but he knew her — 
knew her as she was, a foe in his household ; the most 
unscrupulous of his enemies in Bellicose — making 


148 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


use of natural affection in her effort to slay the hope 
of a believer in Jesus. 

Oh, how she yearned to stand well in the estimation 
of her friends ! And how hard — how very hard to 
bear — had been the knowledge, that beneath all the 
kind words which her friends spoke to her, there was 
pity for her in their hearts. Our troubles seem so 
unnecessary^’ she said to herself. cannot conceive 
how that can be Christianity which causes a man to 
stop providing for his family — when such provision 
is being made in a respectable profession or line of 
business.” 

How could she — who had not the slightest suspicion 
that events could impress minds in any way except 
the way in which they impressed her mind — how could 
she understand that her father had been loyal to duty ! 
Social surroundings, family ties and public opinion, 
being in her estimation the great realities — how could 
she believe otherwise than that Christianity, to be 
vital, must be their preserver and friend ! 

‘‘Ought not sound-minded love of Christ” — she 
asked herself — “ prompt a family man to cling with 
all his might to his means of support ? ‘ If any 
provide not for his own, and specially for those of his 
own house, he hath denied the faith and is worse than 
an infidel.’ These words are not mine. How can I 


A STRAIs^GE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


149 


feel reconciled when the Bible speaks so unmistakably 
and so emphatically ! ' I have been young^ — says the 

Psalmist — ^and now am old; yet have I not seen the 
righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.’ My 
father has wrested Scripture to his own destruction.” 

But the pastor heard no word of complaint from his 
daughter. Things went from bad to worse ; and she 
bore her trouble in silence. Then that most terrible 
thing happened — the fresh disgrace, deeper than any 
that had fallen on the little family before. What 
has been benefited” — she asked herself — ‘^by the 
rioting that we are now suffering from ! Surely not 
the cause of Christ — that cause which my father has 
turned into R weapon to assail men’s beliefs with — 
that cause whose mission is to make men harmless as 
doves. Even if my father is wise above all other men, 
does that make strife any the less strife? does that give 
him absolution for bringing warfare to his own 
threshold?” 

She was far, very far from believing that her father 
could be wise above all other men. The argument of 
numbers was all-convincing to her. She was one 
who firmly believed that what everybody says, must 
be true. She believed implicitly in the omniscience 
of the majority. ^^If one man can be right” — she 
said — ^‘and a whole community wrong, how can 


150 


A TRUE SOif OF LIBERTY. 


there be any meaning to the term : common sense ? 
No, it cannot be that my father knows more than 
all other people.^’ 

Misguided woman ! making the same assault upon 
an advocate of Truth that Christas murderers made 
when tormenting Him. ^^Whom makest thou thy- 
self they cried out when Truth through His lips 
denounced their wicked religion. 

The daughter would have been aghast if her judg- 
ment of her father^s course of action had been written 
down and shown to her. She never fully faced her 
thoughts ; yet never could she wholly escape them. 
Her religious convictions forced them before her — 
fragmentarily, but constantly. Never could she stop 
asking in her heart: ^^Who began the trouble? 
surely” — she thought — ^^if my father had been gen- 
erous toward other men^s beliefs; if he had never 
wounded the feelings of his neighbors — we would be 
happy to-day. The community was orderly in the 
first place ; men were friendly to my father and loved 
him. But he repulsed them and insulted their 
cherished opinions. Surely we ought to use hospi- 
tality without grudging — to opinions as well as to 
persons. Kind words can never die. They must pre- 
vail. Why did not my father put his faith in them !” 

She had never thought once in all her life — that if 


A STRAKGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


151 


praying, singing and succoring the needy had been 
all the religion practiced by Christ — He would have 
lived to old age before the Jews would have molested 
Him. 

At times it seemed to her that her father^s course of 
action was a series of mistakes which originated in his 
not looking on the bright side of things. At other times 
she thought that his fundamental error was excessive 
eagerness after perfection ; which made him try to real- 
ize it in his own life, try to find it in other people, and 
blame them if they did not attain it at once. Why 
had he not started on the path of righteousness with 
the determination to make haste slowly ! ^^He hates 
policy ” — she said — '' but is tact irreligion ? Why did 
he not moderate his enthusiasm; why did he not 
learn to adapt it to his surroundings ? Does he not 
know that in whatsoever state we are — therewith we 
ought to be content ? And if having food and 
raiment we ought to be content, how much more ought 
we when we have also pleasant social surroundings ! 

How lamentably ignorant she was of that mighty 
restlessness which lays hold of God’s witnesses with 
such power that they never know content. How 
wholly unconscious she was of the mission of those 
who are described in the allegory of St. John the 
divine, as being round about God’s throne and in the 


152 


A TRUE SOI?' OF LIBERTY. 


midst of it ; and who are full of eyes so that they see 
all things. They cannot be deceived. False Gods 
and false Christs have no power over them. Ordinary 
employments cannot hold them. They rest not day nor 
night ; but ever bear witness of the one true God ; the 
Lord God Almighty which was, and is, and is to come. 

‘‘Why did not my father know better” — queried the 
daughter — ‘ ‘ than to try to turn human beings into 
angels suddenly ? All things come round to him who 
waits. The Apostle’s express injunction is to run 
with patience the gospel race. Why did not my father 
know better than to oppose himself to the will of 
determined men? Why did not he let his neighbors 
alone, and talk over his theories quietly with me ? 
I would have humored his idiosyncrasies ; and he and 
I would have lived in comfort and happiness. Yet he 
need not have given up one iota of his belief that the 
world ought to govern itself in accordance with his 
ideas.” If her life had depended on it, she could not 
have gotten out of her thoughts the saying that kept 
inserting itself among them — that a man once lived 
who got along very well in the world by minding his 
own business. 

“Well! What has happened, has happened” — 
she said — “and must be accepted. I will try to 
make the best of our altered circumstances. I will 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


153 


try to be as cheerful and as happy as I can ; and I 
will do all that lies in my power to make father as 
comfortable and happy as he can be made.” 

She nursed the pastor tenderly and patiently 
through the illness that followed the assault which 
had been made upon him. To her gentle and assidu- 
ous care he owed his recovery. Gradually he grew 
convalescent. Slowly, but surely, day after day — he 
regained strength of body and vigor of mind. And 
at last as he sat in his chair by the open window, 
looking out upon fields that were rejoicing under 
summer skies, and calling to his daughter from time 
to time to notice some new beauty in the scene before 
him — he seemed almost the same man that he had 
been in past days. He had never been robust in form 
or fiorid in complexion ; therefore his present thin- 
ness of figure and paleness of countenance were not 
very noticeable. The only real alteration of his 
visage was where it was marred by the scars of the 
wounds which the patriots of Bellicose had set upon 
him. 

Father” — the daughter ventured to say one 
beautiful morning, to the pastor sitting in his favorite 
place — I believe that you do love the world after all; 
notwithstanding all you have said and done. I am 
sure that no one could enjoy a day like this more than 


154 


A TEUE SOI?' OF LIBERTY. 


you do. To look at the birds and the flowers gives 
you a joy which you cannot conceal.” 

She spoke, with a look of appeal on her face which 
almost showed anxiety. In her mind there was a 
vague belief that if she could win an assent from her 
father it would open up ideas which would in some 
way make possible a restoration of father and daughter 
to their former position in Bellicose. 

^‘My dear,” said the pastor, you must not con- 
found the earth with the world ; they are entirely 
and distinctly different things. The earth ever since 
its creation has been fulfllling the mission it was sped 
upon ; and is to-day putting forth all its powers in 
obedience to the laws of God, to preserve the order 
which He has ordained — shaping blade and ear so 
that kindly fruits shall be brought forth in due 
season. But the world of human beings on the earth 
is wholly without form and void — shapeless in the 
sight of God; and void of obedience to His will. 
Confusion reigns there ; and darkness broods over 
the deeps which are in the souls of men. With all 
its powers, the world which now is upon the earth 
withstands the commandments of God; and strives 
to thwart His desire to banish chaos. His times and 
seasons are scouted. The seeds of righteousness are 
treated as chaff ; and sowers go forth sowing to the 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


155 


wind; so that the harvest which God loves shall not 
be gathered in ; so that reapers shall reap the whirl- 
wind. As we look with gladness on the pleasant 
scenes which the earth is presenting to our eyes — let 
us sorrow, my daughter, because of the world which 
now is on the earth. But more abundantly let us be 
joyous because of the world which is to come. For 
as surely as the Spirit of God once moved upon an 
earthly void, so surely shall His Spirit move upon the 
hearts of all people — and a world of men and women 
shall be upon this earth, wherein the pattern which 
was shown by Jesus shall be the prevailing fashion.” 

But the upholders of the American union cared 
nothing for the fashion of the world to come. They 
did not propose to meet violence with meekness. They 
did not mean to love their enemies. They meant to 
subdue them ; they meant to kill them. 

The fashion of this world was good enough for the 
upholders of the American union. It had stood the 
test of time. Self-protection was their rock of ages. 
And so, with darkened understanding and with hearts 
filled with love of evil they went about their purpose 
of raising an army to put down the rebellion ” — 
coupling with their enterprise the name of Him who 
said : ‘^If ye love me keep my commandments.” 
The argument with which they cheated their souls 


156 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


was, in its real analysis, this : Christ came to earth to 
uphold the right and to put down evil. We are in the 
right because we are we. Therefore if we love the 
right and hate evil as Christ did, we must uphold 
ourselves and each other, and put down those who 
oppose themselves to us. 

From city to city, from settlement to settlement 
throughout the American union, a call to arms was 
sounded. From pulpit to pulpit the summons was 
re-echoed in the name of the Prince of Peace. 
Preachers, who by most solemn vows had pledged 
themselves, in the presence of God and man, to up- 
hold Christas gospel of good will, called on men 
everywhere to lay hands on murderous weapons and 
go forth to slay human beings ; praying to Satan 
under the name of the God of battles to give victory 
to the upholders of the American union in the con- 
flict which was before them. Other reverend recruiters 
preferred to hide facts from their hearers. They did 
not tell volunteers for battle the real murderous 
acts which they were being summoned and sent to 
do. They said : Go and die for your country I” 

This manner of speaking of the soldier’s mission 
speedily grew very popular. Men cried out to each 
other to rally around the Stars and Stripes — to follow 
the flag of the American union and die. They said 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


157 


that they could accomplish more desirable things than 
one, by the proceeding — that they could turn slaves into 
free men like themselves. And they called each 
other and themselves imitators of Christ, with less 
hesitation than ever. Back and forth through the 
American union the popular sentiment was thrown. 
Men caught it up quickly and sent it abroad again. 
The poet put it into metrical and lying verse. The 
melodist set it to music ; and from one end of the 
American union to the other, the people sang it. 

As He died to make men holy, 

Let us die to make men free, 

they blasphemously sang — likening the Prince of 
Peace to their own murderous selves. 

Notwithstanding, however, this proposal which 
men were making to each other and singing about — 
the volunteers knew that they were rallying around 
the standard of the American union for some other 
purpose than dying ; else why did they bear swords 
and guns ? Khetorical and metrical humbuggery did 
not delude them ; neither did it deceive anybody ; 
unless, perhaps, the young children whom double- 
tongued parents and guardians were seducing from 
paths of innocence into the ways of the devil. In 
reality, the inspirers and abettors of the volunteers — 
and they themselves — hoped that they would return to 


158 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


their homes alive and well; bearing trophies of victory, 
and swords dyed with the blood of their fellow-men. 

The Bellicose contingent of that army of three 
million men, which in those days went out to pro- 
tect their earthly homes by slaughtering the defenders 
of other homes, was marching on its way to the front. 
The pastor, sitting in his accustomed place, watched 
its departure. With flowers, with bright colors, with 
inspiring music, the volunteers marched away — step- 
ping with a boldness and confldence which they could 
not have exceeded if they had been setting out on 
some laudable enterprise ; marching to slaughter 
their fellow-men with an eagerness which they could 
not have surpassed if they had never declared that 
life is one of the unalienable rights of man. 

In the ranks, and not lagging, were many who 
times beyond count had proclaimed themselves follow- 
ers of Him who told men to return good for evil. 
They too, were going forth to shoot down men who 
were opposing them — agoing far out of their way to 
disobey Christ’s law, with as much zeal as if they had 
never even heard of being shod with the preparation 
of the gospel of peace. To borrow an expression 
from Mr. Kitto — the members of Union Tabernacle 
were ^^not in the rear.” Side by side with them 
marched other recruits drawn from the various de- 


A STRANGE SORT OF :MARTYRD0M. 


159 


nominational bodies which gathered. in the different 
churches of Bellicose. See ! ” said the pastor, 

they hold their faith in unity of spirit, notwith- 
standing their apparent dissensions. Touch their 
hearts, and at once it becomes apparent that they are 
all at one in their religion. To Satan with one con- 
sent they bend the knee, and hail him God over all, 
worthy forever I” 

Some there are who believe that the human face is 
an index of character. The faces of the women, who 
in Bellicose bade farewell to the departing volunteers, 
showed naught of the wickedness of their hearts. 
Their fair and lovely features seemed rather the incar- 
nation of goodness and purity than masks to cover 
black souls that were plotting the slaughter of their 
fellow-creatures, and treason against their Creator. 

Forward marched the soldiers, encouraged by the 
plaudits of all the people of Bellicose — save one. 
From an upper window of the pastor’s house the 
daughter waved a farewell; and leaning far out, 
made loving gestures to a soldier whose eyes dwelt 
fondly on her features. Every heart in Bellicose, 
save that of the believer in Jesus, cried: ^^God 
speed ! ” — to men who, calling themselves Christians, 
were hastening to reveal themselves as the most 
benighted heathen. 


160 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


These are they,” said the pastor, ^^who have 
the effrontery to call other men heathen. These are 
they who being horrified because little children in 
foreign lands are slain in the name of religion — send 
missionaries to those lands to teach people how to do 
right. How much better by far it is to slay little 
children in their innocence, than to preserve their 
lives and rear them up with an education which 
teaches them in the name of Christ to butcher their 
fellow-creatures. Oh, that these men would learn 
to hate the heathenism of their own hearts ! Oh, 
that they would pray for preachers of Christas gospel 
to be sent to them !” 

In all Bellicose, only he who had laid down his life 
for a home eternal would have cried ^^halt I” to the 
men who were on their way to destroy other men^s 
lives, in the vain belief that they could thus give 
stability and security to homes whose very natures 
decreed that they could be nothing but transient. 

The emotions in the pastor’s heart were like the 
sorrows which Jesus knew when He wept over the 
doomed city. Oh, Jerusalem ! ” he cried, as those 
who had named the name of Christ and were pressing 
toward iniquity, passed his window. Thou that 
stonest the prophets and killest them that are sent 
unto thee, how oft would I have charged thee to be 


A STKANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


161 


true to the home eternal; to be loyal to the only family 
which can endure forever — the household of faith in 
Christ ; but thou wouldst not. Thou hast chosen to fix 
thy affections on things which cannot remain. There- 
fore thou art given over to disobedience ; and knowest 
not the time of thy visitation. 

The pastor knew well that mistaken ideas of duty 
lay at the root of the evil which the professing 
Christians of Bellicose were going out to do. ‘^How 
fearless of danger they are ! ” said he. ** They shrink 
not from peril. Dauntless they are going where what 
men call death — and that in its most horrid form — 
will strike on all sides of them and at them ; believing 
that they are answering duty’s call. Men who can 
thus face all that human flesh naturally shrinks from, 
battling for the dominion of their own ideas, could 
face the same horrors unresisting, for the sake of 
Christ’s dominion, if they believed that duty demanded 
it of them. A false conception of their duty makes 
them soldiers. Brave and resolute — unswerving of 
purpose and fearing neither suffering nor what men 
call death — truly of such as these, God makes Christ’s 
martyrs when it is His good pleasure to do so. 

Oh, if these men would learn what death really 
is, and fear it ! Oh, if they could be taught that 
disobedience of God’s commandments is death ; and 


162 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY, 


learn to shrink from death. Oh, if these men who 
are so reckless of what this world calls life, could be 
taught what life is — ^and learn to prize it ! Oh, if 
they could be taught that to obey G-od is to live. 
But they cannot see Truth. Verily, Thou art a God 
that hidest Thyself, oh Lord. 

‘'These men cannot see that it is God^s purpose 
that professing followers of Christ shall be deceived 
by the ways of this world. They cannot see that He 
is thus teaching some lesson which men in the world to 
come will thank Him that they have learned. These 
men cannot see that it is God’s purpose that this world 
shall not be converted to Christ. They cannot see 
that God has ordained that Christ’s gospel shall be 
preached during this present dispensation ; not for the 
salvation of this world from sin — but for a witness — 
for a summons — to gather a little company of believers 
who are to be hated and killed by this world, and 
afterward to be hailed as leaders of men, in the world 
which is to come. These men cannot see that Christ 
is not being truly shown to this world ; that God for 
His own wise purpose is permitting this world to look 
at Christ through beliefs and prejudices which have 
obscured men’s minds. 

“ This world will never see that the only family 
which men ought to be unswervingly loyal to, is that 


A STRANGE SORT OF MARTYRDOM. 


163 


family which loves God as a Father, and Christ as an 
elder brother ; that family whose habitation is eter- 
nity, and whose unalienable possessions are endless love 
and power to forgive offenses, trespasses and sins. 
The God-like power of forgiving sins — the Christ-like 
attribute of meekness — is denied to those whose hearts 
are bound by earthly ties. 

‘‘These men are blinded, '’said the pastor — as the 
volunteers passed out of sight, and as the last hurrahs 
of their admirers died away — “these men are 
blinded because they are men whom God intends 
shall be blinded. Men were not thus blinded in that 
world which once was, when the sons of God walked 
the earth. Neither will men be thus blinded in the 
world which is to come; when the sons of God shall 
again be manifested. Only this present evil world 
has power to draw a veil between the understanding 
of men and the Truth as it is in Jesus. Only of this 
world does Christ say: ‘ It must needs he that offences 

) yy 


come. 


164 


A TRUE SON OP LIBERTY. 


CHAPTER IX. 

THE wanderer's WELCOME. 

The soldier whose eyes looked fondly on the 
pastor's daughter as the volunteers were marching 
away from Bellicose, was Deacon Tristam's son. He 
was a member of Union Tabernacle, and patriotic to 
his ^heart's core. He was a teacher in the Sunday- 
school and a believer in hell fire. He believed that 
human beings, who have not repented of their sins 
before their souls' departure from their earthly bodies, 
are doomed to dwell forever in fiames actual, terrible, 
and burning with an intensity far beyond anything 
that mind can conceive of. He believed that such 
unrepentant sinners are given bodies that can burn 
in endless fiames; that can suffer inexpressible agony, 
and yet can endure forever. He believed this, fully and 
sincerely ; and he acted on his belief. He made it 
his life's mission to strive to keep souls away from 
the flames of hell. The solemn thought never left 
him, that he was every day in contact with human 
beings, who, before another sunrise, might be sum- 


THE wanderer’s WELCOME. 


165 


moned to the bar of God ; and sent from thence to 
dwell in torments. He prayed earnestly that he 
might ever have a realizing sense of the daily and 
hourly peril that human beings are in ; and that he 
might work while it is called to-day. When he met 
a friend or acquaintance who had not made a public 
profession of religion — instead of inquiring of such a 
one in regard to physical health — his questions were 
always about the welfare of the soul. And so sincere, 
earnest and solicitous was he in his manner, that the 
most frivolous among the unregenerate’’ could not 
scoff without an uncomfortable feeling in his heart 
that he was putting himself still further in the wrong ; 
and that the deacon’s son was wholly right in the 
matter. 

Ed. Tristam was a good man — such was the verdict 
of Bellicose. More than one dying person had been 
aroused to a sense of his guilt in the sight of God by 
his instrumentality. ‘‘How can my zeal ever falter !” 
he was wont to say. “To die a sinner is to be 
doomed to burn forever ; from this there is no escape; 
the law covers the whole human race.” 

He had lost a sister by death when she was seven 
years old. Before she died — a little innocent, know- 
ing no more about sin than the angels in heaven — he 
had inquired into her soul’s condition. “Mary” he 


166 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


said, solemnly and kindly, during a lucid interval of 
her fever — ^^it may be that you are about to die. 
You must repent ; or else God will put you down 
into that awful burning hole where wicked persons 
must stay forever. You do not want to go there, do 
you dear ? You want to go to heaven and live forever 
with Jesus and the angels ; don’t you, my darling ?” 

Little Mary who was a sensitive, timid child, 
shuddered and said that she did not want to burn 
forever in hell ; then she became delirious. Her 
mother told the doctor, when he called, that Mary had 
seemed to be somewhat better for a little while ; but 
had got worse again. The next day when Mary was 
free of her fever once more, her brother talked with 
her again about her soul until she said that she had 
repented of her sins. When she died, he thanked 
God, on his knees, that he had been instrumental in 
saving his little sister’s soul. That she was wholly fit 
for the presence of God without any interference on 
his part, was a thought which could not by any 
possibility have been gotten into his brain. 

Union Tabernacle was proud of the deacon’s son ; 
and called him a bright and shining light. With the 
boys of his Sunday-school class he labored and prayed 
most faithfully. And his labors had been crowned 
with success. Not as fully, it is true, as he desired ; 


THE WANDERER^S WELCOME. 


167 


but enough so to warrant him in believiijg that his 
talents were gaining other talents for the Lord’s use. 
Many had been led by him to feel concern about the 
welfare of their souls — to realize their lost condition, 
and to cry : What must I do to be saved ! ” Many 
had professed faith in Christ and had been received 
into the full fellowship of Union Tabernacle — 
promising young converts. 

The deacon’s son kept careful record of all his 
scholars ; and especially of the spiritual condition of 
those who left his class without having made a public 
profession of religion. If they continued to live in 
Bellicose he was careful to call on them from time to 
time, and to make inquiries about their souls. And if 
— as sometimes happened, they left the town altogether 
— he opened and kept up a correspondence with them. 
He said that his scholars were always his scholars until 
they had been received into the Church of Christ. 
Whether they were present or whether they were 
absent — all the youth who had ever been taught by 
him had always a claim upon his care until they had 
given evidence that their souls were numbered among 
the saved. 

On one member of his class, the deacon’s son had 
. nev6r been able to make any impression. This boy 
was a hard one ; seeming to have every vicious pro- 


168 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


pensity planted deep in his heart; and picking up 
every idle and bad habit. The teacher had been advised 
again and again to give the boy over as irreclaimable. 
The superintendent of the school had more than once 
threatened to expel him. Everybody save the deacon^s 
son declared the boy^s case hopeless; and that his 
presence in the school was hurtful to discipline. The 
boy’s teacher was told that he was doing his other 
scholars an injury by befriending the boy — that the 
one sickly sheep would surely poison the rest of the 
flock. But the deacon’s son would not listen to his 
advisers. He said that the boy would surely yield 
in course of time, to his pleadings and to the good 
example set by the other scholars. He said also that 
underneath the outer crust of the boy’s heart there 
was sincere love for his teacher. 

But the boy seemed to take pride and delight in his 
wrong doings; and in offsetting them against the 
ways of the others scholars. He grew worse instead 
of better. 

One Sunday he was absent from his class. During 
the session of the school loud voices and sounds of 
altercation were heard outside the door, and in the 
vestibule or passage-way which separated the school- 
room from the street. These noises breaking upon 
the quiet of the session were so unseemly, that a teacher 


THE wanderer’s WELQOME. 169 

near the door went quickly out to suppress the 
disturbance. On his return he reported to the 
superintendent that he had found the bad scholar of 
brother Ed. Tristam’s class smoking a cigar in the 
vestibule, and skylarking with another boy. lie said 
also that he had remonstrated with them and 
had been answered with abuse and vile language. He 
then, according to his report, had taken the boy by 
the arm — ^had walked him out of the door — and the boy 
had gone away threatening to do him bodily damage. 
As the boy was being ejected he had put his hand inside 
of his coat, and had partly drawn out something that 
looked like a weapon. Such was the report of the 
teacher who had ejected him. 

The bad scholar never entered the school again. 
When the deacon’s son visited him to continue his 
efforts at reclamation, the boy’s version of the eject- 
ment differed from the report that had been made to 
the superintendent ; and he said that he would never 
return to a Sunday-school that he had been knocked 
and kicked out of. The deacon’s son did not know 
what to believe about the occurrence. The boy’s 
reputation was bad. Very probably he would not 
hesitate about telling a falsehood in order to make 
out a case for himself, and secure sympathy. On the 
other hand the teacher who had ejected the boy was 


170 


A TRUE SOJq- OF LIBERTY. 

known to be quick tempered ; and in anger he might 
have done more than he afterward remembered. 

At all events, the bad scholar was never seen in the 
Sunday-school again. Shortly after his ejectment 
his parents moved away from Bellicose and his 
teacher lost all traces of him. Yet during the years 
which followed, the deacon^s son did not give up the 
hope of finding his lost scholar and of ‘‘saving his 
soul.” Although every effort which he put forth 
failed, he still yearned over the missing one, in his 
heart. He still prayed for the boy. He still said 
that he had a hope which was almost certainty, that 
he would some day learn from the boy’s lips how a 
repentant wanderer had been led to return to his 
Heavenly Father’s home to find forgiveness, love and 
welcome. 

Nevertheless, when the deacon’s son marched out 
of Bellicose among the volunteers, he had not received 
the slightest clue to the whereabouts of his lost 
scholar. Before he went he requested the members 
of his family to notify him immediately if any message 
from, or information of the missing one should reach 
Bellicose. He said that he would write to the lad at 
once, on receipt of such information, and try to win 
him from the paths which lead down to hell. 

The pastor’s daughter and the deacon’s son had 


THE wanderer’s WELCOME. 


171 


pledged themselves to marry each other. Their 
farewell tryst had taken place the night before the 
departure of the troops. There was no time for 
lingering words the next morning, at the spot where 
the troops were assembling. There was only time 
then for the lovers to hurriedly embrace ; and to 
hastily charge each other to write frequent letters. 
Then the pastor’s daughter returned to her home to 
witness from an upper window the departure of the 
man to whom she had given the love of her young life. 

Thus the deacon’s son and the pastor’s daughter 
separated from each other ; he with his heart filled 
full of a patriotism which had swallowed up every 
other feeling, and had caused him to break away from 
every tie at his country’s call ; and she with her 
heart filled with those emotions which women know 
whose loved ones go forth to kill and to be killed in 
battle. 

The hastily written letters which the pastor’s 
daughter soon began to receive, kept her informed of 
the movements of her soldier. They told of the 
marching of the volunteers from point to point in 
their progress toward the scene of conflict. They 
spoke of various scenes incident to embarking and 
disembarking when resort to railroad or steamboat 
had been necessary. They told of the passing of the 


173 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY, 


troops through cities which lay iu their course — 
patriotic cities whose inhabitants greeted ‘^the boys 
in blue” with wild applause — and cities where patri- 
otism was halting and where citizens showed the flag 
of the American union with reluctance. And ever 
and ever again between such items of news was a 
word or two about the missing scholar. Sometimes 
a charge for a speedy notiflcation as soon as a message 
from the delinquent should come ; and always the 
expression of a firm conviction that the writer would 
meet his lost scholar again and that together they 
would bow down in thankfulness and joy before the 
Father of all mercies. 

Then the letters told of the arrival of the volunteers 
at the seat of war; and of their encampment. And 
then came a letter which made the pastor^s daughter 
shudder with horror — which sent her with a face of 
deathly whiteness, hurrying with shaking limbs to 
her father; and which brought out on his face — on 
the countenance of the man who had schooled himself 
to meet unshrinkingly every terror which this world 
can launch at the follower of Christ — an expression of 
almost cowering awe. 

The letter said that a night or two before the date 
which it bore, the writer had been appointed to do 
sentry duty. It told how, as he had paced up and 


THE WAHDERER^S WELCOME. 


173 


down upon his post silent and alone, with nighVs 
darkness about him, and stars glittering overhead, his 
thoughts had been employed. It told how fond 
memories of loved ones far away had filled his mind 
and throbbed through his heart ; albeit every sense 
was alert to protect the encampment which had been 
committed to his guardianship. Thoughts of dear 
ones in Bellicose had suggested thoughts of that loved 
and lost scholar who at some time would return in 
some providential manner to gladden the heart of his 
teacher. The letter said that while the thoughts of 
the writer had been thus employed — just as he had 
decided to write again to Bellicose to emphasize his 
former charges about sending news of the lost scholar 
as soon as received — he fancied that he heard a 
rustling of leaves and a snapping of twigs in a clump 
of bushes close at hand. 

** Immediately,” said the writer — I halted ; and 
pointed my musket at the spot — waiting for another 
sign or movement. The silence was profound. I 
remained thus for a moment ; and then thinking that 
my ears had been deceived, I was about to resume my 
steps, when I thought that I saw something crouched 
low down on the ground a few paces away and 
approaching me — a form whose vague outlines were 
hardly distinguishable from the surrounding gloom. 


174 


A TRUE SON^ OP LIBERTY. 


goes there I cried. ^Advance and give 
the countersign, or you are a dead man ! ’ 

‘‘ As I spoke, the form rose up — and I saw rushing 
at me, the figure of a man with hand uplifted and 
brandishing a weapon. It all happened in a moment. 
I fired ; and the man, giving a yell, pitched headlong 
to the ground and lay at my feet — writhing, groaning 
and uttering most horrible curses. The next moment 
he was quiet.” 

The letter then said that amid the confusion which 
followed the report of the gun — while drums were 
rolling out an alarm — while bugles were sounding, and 
voices shouting a call to arms — a lantern was brought; 
and by its light, the writer — looking on the features 
of the dead man, lying where he had fallen — saw the 
face of his lost scholar. 

‘^Where the poor lad went” said the writer, in 
conclusion, ^^hen he left Bellicose — I know not. 
I only know that in some way he was led into the 
rebel army, and has fallen fighting against the fiag 
of his country. Oh, it is horrible I horrible ! — the 
thought of those curses which seem always to be 
ringing in my ears. Did he die thus — or did the 
wondrous mercy of Grod turn his poor heart to Christ 
even while he was in the very clutches of death? Did 
the poor lad, even like the dying thief, rejoice in Jesus 


THE WANDERER^S WELCOME. 


175 


with his last expiring breath ; and is his saved soul 
now with his Redeemer in Paradise ? Who can tell ! 
I hope that it is so. I pray that it is so. What can 
we say, but : God^s will be done !” 

Amen ! ” cried the pastor — throwing down the 
letter and walking up and down the room in an 
agitation which the daughter had never seen equalled. 

Amen ! Amen ! What can we say but God^s will be 
done ! Bow the heavens, oh Lord, and come down ! 
so that Thy will may be done upon earth as it is done 
above. Our hope is in Thee alone. There is no 
hope in man. Too long has man wrought the will of 
Satan upon earth. Too long have the eyes of men 
been darkened. Too long have men, while professing 
a love for human souls, been slaughtering their 
fellow-men and sending them red-handed into the 
presence of their final Judge. Too long have men, 
while professing a belief that the torments of hell are 
endless, and that few there be that escape them — too 
long have they been sending their fellow-men off of 
the earth by thousands upon thousands, to meet their 
eternal destiny. ,Too long have men, while professing 
to believe that the whole duration of time is as a span 
when compared with eternity — too long have they 
been slaying their fellow-men because of offenses 
whose effects at the very worst could only last during 


176 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


a fragment of a span. Too long ! Too long ! But 
the ways of man are not endless, oh God ! They are 
not the movements of a system which must go on 
forever. Somewhere upon the course which his feet 
are pursuing — and which man calls the path of 
human progress — Thou hast set a bound that he 
cannot pass. Some time he will surely hear Thy 
voice saying : Thus far shalt thou go and no farther. 
Oh, Thou who didst ordain that the sons of God, who 
once walked the earth, should fall from their high 
estate — Thou wlio didst ordain that Thy true church 
should pass away ; and that in its place the wrecks 
and ruins of a pure belief should vaunt of a 
religion undefiled, and delude men's souls — grant 
oh, Thou most mighty God, that this too shall pass 
away ! Evil times are pressing in upon the saints of 
God and are wearing out the patience of Thy elect 
who are in the earth. Descend, oh God in majesty ! 
Make thy sons manifest once more; and open the 
path of salvation into a broad highway. Let the 
righteous shine! Blot out this wicked interim — so that 
Alpha and Omega shall be as one. For thy elect's sake 
shorten these days of tribulation. Destroy the false 
Christ ! Slay the man of sin I Even as it was in the 
wondrous beginning — let it be now, upon earth — 
oh, God — and grant that so it shall evermore be ; 


THE WAHDEREE^S WELCOME. 


177 


world without end, Amen I” Drawing his daughter 
to his side, the pastor sank down on his knees — 
pouring out with his whole soul the prayer which, 
sooner or later, every child of God learns to breathe : 
Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly I 


178 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


CHAPTER X. 

THE PASTOR^S MISTAKE. 

To SAY that factors mightier than man are in the 
world ; to say that man is but an agent, through 
whose instrumentality superior powers are working 
out ends and accomplishments; to say that spirits 
take possession of man and use him — is unfashionable; 
it is obsolete. 

Yet they who are fully abreast with the times — they 
who are in the very forefront, among modern thinkers 
— declare unhesitatingly, that ideas are the moving 
powers of the world. 

What is the difference between the two statements ? 
Who can tell ? Yet men think that the former is a 
belief that belongs to an age of superstition ; and that 
the latter is a belief that belongs to an age of enlight- 
enment. Men substitute new words for old, and think 
that they have discovered new things — that the world 
is entering new paths, on a progress toward perfection. 

When in all this world’s history has true progress 
been shown, in man’s thoughts or ways ? When men 


THE pastor's mistake. 


179 


change from killing other men in the name of God 
and religion, as in old times — to killing other men in 
the name of society and patriotism, as in these times 
— what sort of progress has been achieved ? 

Compare age with age; compare prominent features 
of periods separated by vast stretches of time; and 
find if you can, real improvement in the ways of man. 
Compare the medieval period with the present age. 
Take the mode of life which approached nearest to 
the ideal, in the belief of men and women who lived 
in those times, which — according to history — stood 
only in the dawn of a bright day in whose broad noon- 
tide we of these times are ; compare that manner of 
life with the manner of life which is popularly 
accepted to-day as being the best way of living. 
Compare the cloister life of the middle ages with the 
family life of the nineteenth century. Is the latter 
an improvement on the former ? 

Historians say that monasticism cast contempt on 
woman, degraded domestic relations and withdrew 
from active life the noblest souls of the age — men 
and women the world had need of. They say that 
the cloisters of past ages were retreats for weak 
characters who found total abstinence easier than 
temperance, religious thought more pleasant than 
godly action. They say that the cloisters were pro- 


180 


A TRUE SOK OF LIBERTY. 


moters of enervation and decrease of population. 

But can anybody truthfully say that a family 
circle where children are taught that it is right for 
man to slay his fellow-man, is not a nursery of Satan? 

There is no real change in the ways of this present 
evil world — no betterment. As it was of old, so it is 
now ; and so it shall be. For thus it is written — and 
this world cannot by any possibility get outside of the 
course marked out for it in the Scriptures. Always 
must judgment begin at the house of God. Always 
is Jerusalem chief persecutor of the prophets. Always 
is the church visible a slayer of Truth and a hater of 
upholders of Truth. 

The pastor understood this fully. He believed 
that God intends that this world shall scourge His 
beloved sons; and that this world always has and 
always will be fulfilling its mission. Therefore 
human historians had never been able to make any 
impression on his mind. ^^Only the book of the 
recording angel,” he often said — bears true witness 
of man^s doings.” 

Neither did his own apparent downfall, nor the 
momentary triumph of the upholders of the American 
union, dismay the pastor. Nation after nation — he 
knew — God-defying, like the nation that surrounded 
him, had gone down into oblivion after having 


THE pastor’s mistake. 


181 


fulfilled their mission of preparing God’s elect for 
that day when the meek shall inherit the earth. 

The wicked can possess the earth and trample the 
Word of God under foot, only for a time,” said he — 
^^only for a short time.” 

The pastor believed that in the great awakening 
which is to come — in that day when it will be easy to 
follow Christ — many will be sorrowful because they 
did not follow Him in peril. And the pastor was sad 
for their sakes ; sad because men were wasting their 
only opportunity to be valiant fighters for Truth; 
sad to see noble and mighty talents perverted by men 
who were wilfully blinding themselves, and who were 
destined to open their eyes in shame and confusion. 

Every great discovery hailed by men as the opening 
of a new avenue for the advancement of the human 
race, was to the pastor but a suggestion of the 
wondrous possibilities which the discoverer had 
rejected in refusing to use his talents in opening the 
kingdom of heaven. '^Had that great mind,” he 
was frequently heard to say — had that great mind 
which discovered and made known to men the law of 
gravitation, employed itself ceaselessly in searching 
and preaching those laws which Christ has enjoined 
upon man — the doctrines out of which grew the 
American union, might have been strangled in their 


182 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


conception. What right have men to use their 
talents in piercing the sky and in burrowing the 
earth, while the human race is lost and wandering 
away from Truth ! ” 

But the pastor had no cause for self-condemnation. 
His free spirit had cried I will ! ” to every call of 
his Master. His past was sealed ; it could not be 
re-opened. Each experience, he had passed through 
only once, upon his onward way. How different was 
his condition from the state of the man who is 
enslaved by appetites and passions, and who struggles 
to be free — going through the same experience over 
and over again. 

The pastor was not naturally a venturesome man. 
He never would have gone into dangerous places for 
love of science or gain. Out of weakness he had been 
made strong. Yet it seemed as though in some ways 
he had had a natural preparation for the course that 
he had chosen. He had not been obliged to weigh 
family duties against the interests of the kingdom of 
heaven ; to consider how much aid a man ought to 
give to his neighbors in their ways and doings, for 
the sake of his children’s temporal welfare. The 
little sum of money which he had laid aside was not 
all gone ; and he had a garden patch to eke out 
support with. He was not yet forced to face starva- 


THE pastor's mistake. 


183 


tion ; and as to abundance, be bad always said that 
be would far ratber bave bis name honored by being 
associated with noble deeds, tbau to bave it honored 
by many bankers. To bave lived up to bis belief 
was worth all that it had cost him. 

As it was of old, in this present evil world, so it is 
now ; and so will it ever be until the end of the days 
during which Christ's gospel must be preached for a 
witness. There is no real change. Always is the 
world turning to itself and feeding upon the thoughts 
that have been conceived by its own evil desires. 
Always is it devouring its own offspring ; always is it 
ready for its own destruction. 

The ceaseless cravings of men — what are they in 
their real meaning but unending desire for that peace 
which alone can satisfy ! The discords and tumults 
of this world, which clash against each other, destroy 
each other and come to nothing — what are they in 
their real meaning but ineffectual attempts to attain 
those harmonies which alone are worthy of duration! 
The yearning of men — the desire of this world, is for 
the advent of those harmonies of the kingdom of 
heaven, whose sweet utterance enraptured that world 
which was, when the sons of God walked upon 
the earth. 

Other utterances are lost to this world. Often had 


184 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


the pastor yearned in his heart to know the things 
that Jesus said to his disciples and which are not 
recorded. One day when talking to his daughter 
about the walk to Emmaus, and the appearing of 
Jesus to the two disciples who journeyed and were 
sad — the pastor said : 

^^It is written that He expounded to them in all 
the Scriptures the things concerning himself. What 
a flood of light must have fallen upon the dark 
understanding of those two disciples I With what 
joy must they have opened their eyes to see a fulfll- 
ment of the promises of God concerning the man 
whose delight is in the law of the Lord. ‘ He shall be 
like a tree planted by the rivers of water’ — the Script- 
ures had said — ‘ that bringeth forth his fruit in his 
season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever 
he doeth shall prosper.’ What ignorance is in the 
world to-day, because there is no record of what those 
two disciples learned from their Master ! . They saw a 
man alive and prospering, whom evil doers thought 
they had destroyed. God had said of this man : 
‘With long life will I satisfy him.’ How grandly the 
meaning of this ‘long life’ must have burst on the 
consciousness of the two disciples ! Often had they 
seen wicked people thriving and continuing in the 
flesh unto old age. That continuing and that 


THE PASTOR^S MISTAKE. 


185 


thriving, they had always taken for long life and 
prosperity; and their faith in the Scriptures had been 
weakened. But now, clear sight was substituted for 
uncertain faith and they discovered their mistake. 
They saw long life and prosperity as they are under- 
stood in the thoughts of God ; and as He bestows 
them on His beloved sons.” 

As days followed each other, and as the pastor felt 
himself drawing nearer and nearer to full vigor, the 
sorrow of his heart seemed to lighten. He found 
himself growing into a belief that men had done 
their worst to him. One of his innermost convic- 
tions — that he would die a death from violence at 
the hands of men — seemed to be losing its hold on 
him. Men had wreaked their vengeance on him; 
they had poured out their hate; and still their victim 
was alive. He took courage. He thought that the 
worst was past. He began to believe that his dis- 
figurement was a seal certifying that a record had 
been completed ; that it was a guaranty of future 
immunity. Henceforward,” he said, let no man 
trouble me. I bear in my body the marks of the 
Lord Jesus.” He even began to look forward to a 
time when men would grow calm ; when their hearts 
would incline to him again, and when he would be 
able to take up his witnessing again in Bellicose. 


186 


A TRUE SOIT OF LIBERTY. 


When war times are over,” he said — when men 
are hot-headed no longer, then perhaps they will 
listen.” 

But not yet was war over ; not yet had the up- 
holders of the American union slaked their thirst 
for the blood of the dweller in the kingdom of 
heaven. The army that had gone forth ^‘to put 
down the rebellion,” had met with disaster. Retreat 
and demoralization were its achievement ; defeat and 
humiliation were written on its banners. If hatred 
of ^‘rebels” had been hot in Bellicose before, now it 
blazed with tenfold intensity. 

Hitherto, as if in compensation for troubled days, 
the pastor’s nights had always been peaceful. Save 
during the period of his illness, sweet and dream- 
less slumber — or dreams most pleasant had, night 
after night, gathered him in beneficent embrace. 
So that in his heart he had often felt grateful for 
sleep; believing that to its periodical respite he owed 
in no small degree the physical powers of endurance 
which had done much to uphold him. One evening 
at his accustomed hour he bade his daughter ‘^good 
night,” and went towards his bedroom — stopping on 
his way, for a few moments, to look out of a window 
that opened toward Bellicose. 

The quiet prospect that met his eye — the shadowy 


THE PASTOR^S MISTAKE. 


187 


houses, with here and there a roof reflecting in 
shimmering ray the radiance of a full unclouded 
moon — spoke of rest, peace and security ; and gave 
no hint of oncoming devastation. How gladly the 
pastor would have sacrificed a night^s repose ; how 
gladly he would have gone out of his house and into 
the town to meet a kindred soul with whom he could 
hold full converse. But he knew that a search for 
such a one would be vain. Bellicose had rejected 
the things that pertain to true welfare. To a man 
the community had scoffed at the gospel of the 
Wonderful Counsellor ; the salvation of the Prince of 
Peace. 

But outside of Bellicose,’’ said the pastor — and 
scattered here and there through the land over which 
the upholders of the American union assert a right 
of sovereignty — are men and women who believe in 
Jesus as truly as I — who trust Him as fully — and who 
would lay down as much as I have laid down, 
and more, to show forth the glad tidings of peace 
on earth and good will to men. I cannot see 
them; but I commune with them. We are one in 
spirit, even as God and Truth are one — and to 
those men and women I send outpourings of love. 
Yes ! To men and women throughout the earth 
who have been enabled to stand steadfast in the cause 


188 


A TRUE SON OF LIBERTY. 


of Peace, with that which has been committed to 
their care — I send forth congratulations and love.'^ 
So saying the pastor moved away from the window, 
and entered his bedroom in search of repose. 

An hour passed ; another, and another. At the 
dead of night — ^just as the daughter, who had been 
sitting up unusually late, was extinguishing the lights 
in the lower part of the house — there came a loud 
knocking upon the outer door. Startled out of her 
self-possession for a moment, she looked around the 
room ; not knowing what to do. Again came the 
knocking — louder and more rapid than before ; and 
at the same time the door bell was pulled violently. 
Timidly the young woman went through the hall, 
and to the door — the locks and bolts of which she 
cautiously unfastened — thinking to look out in a 
guarded manner and demand the business of the 
intruder. But the door was flung out of her hold, 
and wide open. 

One — two — three — half a dozen men with masked 
faces, are bursting through the doorway and into the 
house. Where is your father!” they roughly de- 
mand. Gro and get him — quick I He^s wanted on 
important business.” And they are starting to go 
through the house. 

But the pastor — disturbed by the noise — is now 


THE pastor’s mistake. 


189 


entering the room into which the intruders are just 
striding, by another doorway. '‘Come old man!” 
they cry out as they see him enter. "There’s a 
jollification meeting of rebels up yonder in the woods, 
over the news from Bull Eun. You are specially 
invited to attend, and we have come to escort you.” 
They lay hold of the pastor, disrobed as he is — except 
for a gown that he has thrown over his shoulders ; 
and they thrust him out over his own threshold and 
into the quiet night. Into the quiet night — that is 
calm and peaceful, except for the shouts and calls 
sent up by a crowd of men and boys that surround 
the gateway. 

"Have you got him?” they cry. "Bring him 
along ! Give the old rebel the color that belongs to 
him ! ” This, with confused ejaculations about tar, 
shouted out by one and another, tells the wickedness 
of the plot. But the daughter heeds nothing. 
Unconscious she lies, prone upon the floor — as her 
father is thrust out through his doorway. 

In the early dawn, a form bearing something of the 
semblance of a man— yet in such unsightly, such 
horrid guise, that human beings would have recoiled 
from it as they do not from their kind — slowly 
approached the pastor’s dwelling. Tottering, it came; 
falling down upon the ground ; creeping ; slowly and 


190 


A TRUE SOlf OF LIBERTY. 


laboriously rising, and staggering onward again. 
Feet that had been distractedly flying hither and 
thither during the night hours, ran to the object. 
Loving arms surrounded it. A slight female form, 
bending under its weight, supported it and helped it 
slowly along, and into the house. 

There is not much more to tell. Only to speak of 
the heart-breaking labor of cleansing the pastor of 
the filth with which the patriots of Bellicose had 
disfigured his body. Only to speak of the victim — 
lying on his bed, dying ; and of the daughter at the 
bedside ; her eyes open at last — seeing her father as 
he is : a conqueror, crowned with many crowns. 

So it was in Bellicose a generation ago ; so it is to- 
day ; and so it will ever be, while this present evil 
world shall endure. In the sacred name of Freedom 
blinded multitudes do violence and murder to estab- 
lish a dominion of their own ideas ; while only 
here and there a man or woman can be found who 
knows that only where the Spirit of the Lord is, 
there is liberty,’^ 


THE EHD. 


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